Some thoughts on the football schedule that Kansas State Wildcats will play in 2024
Kansas State football fans can begin making plans for the 2024 season.
The Big 12 unveiled its complete football schedule for the upcoming season on Tuesday, and it will look a little different than what the Wildcats are used to.
For starters, K-State will only play six homes games next season and one of them doesn’t have a definitive date. The Wildcats will host Arizona in an unusual nonconference game involving Big 12 foes because they had previously scheduled the game before Arizona joined the conference. That game will either take place on Sept. 13 (a Friday) or the following day. The Big 12 is leaving both dates open until it makes a final decision in the spring.
The Wildcats will begin the season with a home game against Tennessee Martin on August 31 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Then they will hit the road for a nonconference game against Tulane in New Orleans. Then they will return home and face Arizona.
Stop me if you have heard this one before, but K-State will open Big 12 play away from home with a road game at BYU on Sept. 21.
K-State has only opened conference play at home just six times since it became a Big 12 member. This was long a complaint among fans under previous schedule models, and it will continue to be now that the conference has 16 members, at least for this season.
Chris Klieman’s team will need to be ready to play on the road from the very beginning of the 2024 season. Four of its first seven games will be played outside of Manhattan with trips to Tulane, BYU, Colorado and West Virginia on the slate.
K-State will host Oklahoma State on Sept. 28 and then make its lone road swing of the season with back-to-back away games against Colorado (Oct. 12) and West Virginia (Oct. 19). But the Wildcats will benefit from an open week before those two games. K-State will get two open weeks next season, with the other falling on Nov. 9.
The final stretch of the season begins with a home game against Kansas on Oct. 26, followed by a road trip to Houston and then consecutive home games against Arizona State and Cincinnati.
Farmaggedon will once again serve as the final game of the season, as the Wildcats will close out the year at Iowa State.
It seems like K-State will be tested early. If it can survive all those road trips in September and October, it will have an opportunity to play for a conference championship with a friendly closing schedule. Playing Arizona State and Cincinnati at home in back-to-back weeks should give the Wildcats an opportunity to build momentum before it goes to Iowa State.
K-State and Iowa State played a memorable snow game on the final day of the 2023 regular season. It seems that game went well enough that the Big 12 wanted to keep it at the end of the schedule moving forward.
The Big 12 championship game will take place the following week on Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Kansas State’s 2024 Football Schedule
Tennessee-Martin on Aug. 31
at Tulane on Sept. 7
Arizona on Sept. 13 or 14
at BYU on Sept. 21
Oklahoma State on Sept. 28
at Colorado on Oct. 12
at West Virginia on Oct. 19
Kansas on Oct. 26
at Houston on Nov. 2
Arizona State on Nov. 16
Cincinnati on Nov. 23
at Iowa State on Nov. 30
This story was originally published January 30, 2024 at 10:36 AM with the headline "Some thoughts on the football schedule that Kansas State Wildcats will play in 2024."