K-State Q&A: Big 12 football schedule options, fake fans and more Bill Snyder fashion
Sports are weird without fans.
As nice as it is to have soccer, basketball, golf, corn hole, racing, competitive eating and now baseball back on TV as we try to move past the coronavirus pandemic, every sporting event I have watched over the past few months has left me wanting more.
Celebrations are much more subdued when there are no fans going bonkers after a goal. Visiting teams aren’t nearly as fun to watch when there are no fans to boo them. Referees are too relaxed when there are no fans to heckle their every decision. And everything is way too quiet.
Without fans, the games we watch feel like Diet Sports.
I guess that means I am open to the idea of Fox Sports adding virtual fans to its baseball telecasts this season. The network already pumps in fake crowd noise for most of its games, and while I initially didn’t like that idea, it has grown on me. Silence and sports don’t mix.
It will be interesting to see how sports work on TV with fake fans. Maybe it will become a staple for teams that don’t draw many fans (Cough ... KU football ... Cough ... Texas basketball ... Cough) after things go back to normal.
Either way, thinking about fake fans did make realize something. I’m glad most college football teams remain committed to allowing at least some fans into their games this fall*.
*If there is a football season this fall.
While I don’t like the idea of inviting 50,000 people into a stadium right now, there are ways games could be played in front of 10,000 or even 20,000 under the right circumstances. Everyone would need to take precautions and spread out, but it can be done. I have seen clips of soccer games in Russia with sparse and spread out crowds. They were weird, but the fans in attendance made enough noise for the game to sound normal.
Here’s hoping a similar plan can work here. Fake fans is nothing more than a temporary fix.
Now, it’s time for another K-State Q&A. Thanks, as always, for providing such great questions.
The ideal (and preferred) football option for the Big 12 remains a full, 12-game schedule that will bring Buffalo, North Dakota and Vanderbilt to Bill Snyder Family Stadium this season. But if that is not feasible, a plus-one model could be a solid alternative.
I have heard whispers about the Big 12 showing some interest in lining up games against independents like BYU and Notre Dame that suddenly have major holes in their schedules. But a scheduling alliance with another conference like the ACC or SEC could also make sense, given that some crossover games are already on the 2020 schedule.
Or every Big 12 team could be allowed to pick one of the three opponents on their schedule and go from there.
If the Big 12 ends up going with a 10-game schedule that features a full slate of conference games and one non-conference game, which is by no means a given but certainly a possibility, it would probably make the most sense for K-State to pick Vanderbilt as its Plus One.
North Dakota would make the most sense from a preparation standpoint, because Chris Klieman is more efficient than The Terminator at destroying FCS teams. Do you remember how good the Wildcats looked in the 2019 opener against Nicholls?
Beating up on that team and then Bowling Green helped K-State defeat Mississippi State on the road in Week 3.
It’s like Adam Sandler’s character says in “The Longest Yard” ... his old college teams used to start every season with a “tune-up game” against “Appalachian State or some slack Division II team.” An easy opening win got his team’s confidence up before playing the big boys.
Wrongly identifying Appalachian State as a “tune-up” opponent aside, it’s a good strategy. Opening the season against a heavyweight isn’t always the best strategy. Some of those games turns out great. Others devolve into sloppy turnover fests like Miami/Florida last season.
That being said, it would probably be smarter for K-State to play Vanderbilt than the other two teams on its non-conference schedule. Why? If the Wildcats don’t play that game, they might never get to host the Commodores. At best, they would have to wait several more years.
That would be a shame, given that K-State already played (and lost) against them in Nashville. The Wildcats deserve a shot at revenge.
As a SEC team, Vanderbilt would also have to comply with strict coronavirus testing protocols. It is a safer opponent than any team from outside the Power 5 conferences.
Playing 10 straight power-conference opponents might not be an easy task, but Vanderbilt is not expected to contend for a SEC title this season. K-State will be favored in that game.
If the Wildcats can only play one non-conference game this season, I vote for them to do it against Vandy.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, please take a moment now to go back and read my top 10 list of all the coaching apparel Bill Snyder wore during his long and successful career with the Wildcats.
Snyder got into a routine and wore windbreakers at just about every game during his second stint with K-State, but he had quite the sideline wardrobe before he briefly retired in 2005.
I could probably write another K-State Countdown based entirely on honorable-mention selections.
But you are asking about the other end of the spectrum, and I have an answer for you.
In my mind, his worst look was ... The Striped Polo.
The purple in this shirt doesn’t really match K-State’s purple. And it looks horrible when combined with black stripes and a black collar.
I normally like the fact that he wears perfectly tailored pants that don’t require a belt, but even that looks bad with this shirt. That shirt belongs on the 85% off sale rack at the Colbert Hills pro shop, not on K-State’s football coach.
Switching to a solid-color polo and throwing on a hat makes a world of difference.
That original picture was taken during the 1999 spring game. It’s a good thing he decided to switch to a suit during future spring games. Wearing a suit-and-tie on the sideline is always a good decision.
See what I mean? Much better!
I found some old photos of Snyder in some interesting non NIKE gear, but nothing that rocked the Starter logo.
Too bad. Those Starter jackets were the bomb back in the early 90s.
Nostalgia kicked in hard when I came across one not that long ago at an Urban Outfitters. It wasn’t a multi-colored team jacket like the classics. It was a quieter track jacket. Really thought about buying it until I saw the price tag.
This is one of the few photos I could find of Snyder in a heavy jacket.
While we are on the topic of nostalgia, how great was the old NCAA Football game that EASports used to release every year along with Madden?
I didn’t buy every new edition of the game, but I purchased many of them before the game was discontinued, because (like everything else in college athletics) it ripped off college football players.
It was a much better game than Madden, which I can’t say I have purchased since the original Playstation was in my living room.
But I digress.
The highest rated players on this year’s K-State roster would be ...
Best overall: Wyatt Hubert. The junior pass rusher is a force to be reckoned with on the defensive line.
Strongest: Harry Trotter. Pound for pound, he is probably the stongest man on K-State’s roster. He would live in the weight room if he could.
Fastest: Joshua Youngblood. Do you remember how easily he beat Dalton Schoen in a footrace last season? Maybe someone like Malik Knowles is a smidge faster, but Younglood is really fast.
Awareness: Skylar Thompson. He won’t ever put up huge stats, but he takes care of the ball and knows exactly how to run Chris Klieman’s offense.
E-mail questions
I don’t think I have seen this mentioned in any of your recent mailbags, so I will ask this now even though my question is a bit dated. What are your thoughts on Kansas State’s basketball series with Wichita State? I like it, but I wish they weren’t playing so many of the games in Wichita. - Gregory P.
K-State playing basketball games in Wichita doesn’t bother me. Even when they are against Wichita State.
The Wildcats have been playing neutral-court games at Intrust Bank Arena since Frank Martin was the team’s coach, and they have played in front of solid crowds every time. That first game against West Virginia was an electric atmosphere.
I don’t see the harm in offsetting a neutral-court game in Kansas City with another neutral-court game in Wichita.
For those who don’t know, here are the full details of the series: K-State and Wichita State will play four games. Those games will be held at Koch Arena, Bramlage Coliseum, Intrust Bank Arena and T-Mobile Center (RIP Sprint Center). They will also play an exhibition game at Intrust in October.
The location of the exhibition game is meaningless to me. It shouldn’t affect your feelings on the rest of the series. They put it in Wichita, because more fans are likely to watch the game there than in Manhattan or Kansas City. End of story.
I would have preferred the other games simply rotate between home sites the way God intended. But K-State likes playing games in KC and Wichita likes playing games at Intrust. I don’t see any harm in adding a pair of neutral-court locations to the deal.
Will Wichita State have an advantage playing at Intrust? Probably, but there will still be a lot of purple of that game. I doubt Wichita State fans will match that kind of support when they play in Kansas City.
Both teams get to play at home. Both teams get to play at a neutral-court of their choosing. It seems like a fair setup.
Perhaps K-State could have pushed harder to have just one neutral-court game in Kansas City. But these are evenly matched teams that both have a strong basketball history. They have been trying unsuccessfully to restart their hoops rivalry for years with all kinds of small things preventing it from happening.
If playing multiple games in Wichita is what it took to get the series going again, then so be it. We might have waited another 100 years for both sides to come to an agreement that completely appeased both fan bases.
My hope is that both sides enjoy the series enough to switch to a true home-and-home format in the future. At that point, no one will remember what the original series looked like.
Given how often you reference Whataburger in your weekly column, I’m sure you are excited about it coming to Kansas City. Will you be first in line when it opens? - Stanley T.
I am excited about Whataburger expanding north of Oklahoma, especially into KC. If you must know, I am currently sipping iced tea out of a YETI tumbler that was made to look exactly like the orange-and-white cups they serve in Texas.
Alas, I don’t see myself camping out to eat at the KC location. I love Torchy’s, but I haven’t been to KC for any of their tacos.
Lee’s Summit is more than two hours away from Manhattan, so it’s really not that convenient for me. It’s not all that much farther to Stillwater. The fastest way for me to reach a Whataburger remains hopping on an American flight from MHK to DFW.
Here’s hoping Whataburger (or/and In-N-Out Burger ... I like them both!) eventually opens a restaurant in Kansas. Now that would get me excited.
This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "K-State Q&A: Big 12 football schedule options, fake fans and more Bill Snyder fashion."