By KELLIS ROBINETT
The Kansas City Star
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Mike Ransdell
K-State coach Bill Snyder knows the Big 12 schedule is going to be more difficult than ever.
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In coming years, when Colorado and Nebraska are no longer annual opponents for Kansas State’s football team, Wildcats coach Bill Snyder foresees the Big 12 schedule becoming more difficult than ever.
With the end of the North and South divisions and the start of round-robin play, the Wildcats will face league powers Texas and Oklahoma yearly. They will also play a three-game nonconference season instead of a four-game.
Given Snyder’s preference to load up on early-season home games against beatable opponents, the Wildcats will basically be trading a gimme for a tester. In a 10-team Big 12, Snyder sees little room for error.
“People are going to realize that strength of schedule is going to be dynamically different than what it has been,” Snyder said.
Although he likes the way K-State came out of the great conference-realignment cliffhanger, especially because of the bond it could create with 10 committed members, Snyder is not thrilled about the added difficulty of playing in the new Big 12.
“Everybody always wants to see everybody play the best people that they can,” Snyder said. “But what you have to realize is: When we were in the Big Eight Conference, great teams beat up on great teams. Consequently, the results were not always what you would have liked for them to be. You could be an awfully good program and suffer dramatically.
“It will be a strong conference — as strong a conference as you will find anywhere. There are pluses and minuses to that. Some will prosper, and some will not.”
To make sure K-State prospers, the Wildcats may have to be more selective in their nonconference scheduling. Snyder always has viewed a perfect nonconference record as a key part of qualifying for a bowl game. He also likes home nonconference games, because those benefit Manhattan.
Next season, K-State’s nonconference schedule consists of home games against UCLA, Missouri State and Central Florida and an end-of-season road trip to North Texas. Other early-season games have been scheduled against Miami, Oregon, Virginia Tech, Auburn and Texas-San Antonio.
Snyder and athletic director John Currie aren’t sure how they will fill out future open dates.
“That’s one of the things we’ve got to assess in a scientific fashion,” Currie said. “We have existing contracts with different schools at different levels. We’re just going to have to figure out how to manage things moving forward.”
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