Kansas State-Vanderbilt football game canceled for upcoming season. What’s next?
Kansas State football fans can go ahead and cross at least one game off the Wildcats’ upcoming football schedule.
The Vanderbilt Commodores will not be visiting Bill Snyder Family Stadium for a clash between Big 12 and SEC teams on Sept. 19, as the SEC has decided to move forward with a conference-only schedule consisting of 10 games this season.
In other words: the return game in their home-and-home series has been canceled. Vanderbilt beat K-State 14-7 in Nashville in 2017.
K-State may ultimately end up scrubbing all three of its nonconference games, as the Big 12 hasn’t decided which scheduling format it will use this season. The league seemed content on forging ahead with a 12-game season, but that may no longer be feasible as the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC have all decided to switch to conference-only models.
Until the conference decides on a strategy for the 2020 season, the Wildcats are left with a few options when it comes to replacing or rescheduling the lost Vanderbilt game.
In the short term, they could follow the lead of fellow Big 12 members like Kansas and Iowa State and try to schedule a team from the FCS ranks or a FBS team outside the power-conferences. But that will only work if Big 12 teams are allowed to play a full season.
In the long term, they could look to reschedule the Vanderbilt game for a future year. The Wildcats don’t have an opening on their schedule until 2025, but the Commodores could slide into a slot in most years afterward.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor has previously said he would like to reschedule that game if it were to be canceled.
Another option would be to call off the return trip and push for Vanderbilt to pay the $1 million cancellation fee that is featured in the series contract. That could be tricky, especially if the Big 12 ends up going with a conference-only format of its own, but possible because K-State already traveled to Vanderbilt for a game.
Or both sides could agree to shake hands and simply move on.
The only thing certain right now is that K-State won’t host Vanderbilt this season. The Wildcats’ have their first game cancellation of the year.
This story was originally published July 30, 2020 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Kansas State-Vanderbilt football game canceled for upcoming season. What’s next?."