I will admit when the BCS bowl selection show first ended, I was furious. How could my Kansas State Wildcats not be invited to a BCS bowl? We finished the season 10-2 with our only two loses coming to teams that were both ranked in the top 5. Even worse was that two schools ranked lower than us in the final BCS standings were given at large bids.
This isn’t the first time Kansas State fans have felt cheated by the BCS bowl game system. In 1998, Kansas State was ranked #1 going into the final game of the regular season, which was the Big 12 championship. Sadly, K-state lost on the last play of the championship game. Because of this loss, Kansas State dropped to a #3 ranking. While that wasn’t surprising, the shocker was that this #3 ranking didn’t even secure a BCS bowl game and K-State ended up in the Alamo Bowl.
So here we are again, deserving a spot on one of the biggest stages and being left out once again.
After crying about being in the Cotton Bowl for a few weeks, I have now come to embrace it. Kansas State can now prove to the college football world that the SEC and Big 12 aren’t as far apart as the media would like to portray us. If Kansas State can come up with a win against Arkansas on January 6th, it will cap off one of the best seasons of Kansas State’s history. If we would have been in the Sugar Bowl against Michigan or Virginia Tech, a win gets us nothing more than bragging rights that we beat a mediocre team from a mediocre conference. If we can beat an SEC team, however, we are seen as one of the best teams in the country.
Not only do we get the chance to play a team from the best conference in the country, we also get to play in one of the best places in the world to watch a sporting event. Sure the Sugar Bowl is played in the Superdome, but we instead get to play in Jerry’s World. If we don’t get seats close enough to the field, we can watch the game on a screen that is pretty darn close to being the same size as the field. Dallas is also, in my opinion, a much better destination to hang out in before and after the game.
And here’s the best part, where Kansas State is getting the last laugh: Not only is Virginia Tech not selling their allotment of tickets, they are trying to beg their fans to purchase them to save face. So Sugar Bowl, you have made your bed, now sleep in it. Kansas State fans will travel to Dallas and have a great time. The Cotton Bowl will not only beat out the Sugar Bowl in attendance and ratings, it will also be the better game for the fans.