K-State Q&A: Best and worst football scenarios, a new name for Big 12, Nike and more

Kansas State will play its first football game of the 2023 season in just over two weeks.

Mailbag tradition dictates that this means it’s time for yours truly to map out the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the Wildcats as the fall arrives in Manhattan.

Quick disclaimer: I am well aware that the literal worst-case scenario is 0-12 and the literal best-case scenario is 15-0. Please don’t try to be a wise guy and point that out in my mentions. This crystal ball forecast is based more off what I can envision realistically happening.

Worst-case scenario

It is impossible for me to envision a world in which K-State misses a bowl this season.

The Wildcats are one of the rare teams that returns a starting quarterback (Will Howard), offensive coordinator (Collin Klein), defensive coordinator (Joe Klanderman) and head coach (Chris Klieman). And they are all coming back after helping K-State win a Big 12 championship.

In other words, this team is not going to stink. Its floor should be very high.

I project the Wildcats as favorites in at least eight games, and seven of those will be played at home.

A quick glance at the schedule:

• SEMO

• Troy

• at Missouri

• UCF

• at Oklahoma State

• at Texas Tech

• TCU

• Houston

• at Texas

• Baylor

• at Kansas

• Iowa State

Even if things really go off the rails, six wins seems like a sure thing. SEMO is a lock. K-State won’t lose to both Troy and Missouri, it will be hard for TCU, Houston, Baylor and Iowa State to win in Bill Snyder Family Stadium. K-State always beats KU. Even if the Cats lose four road games, I feel pretty good about 7-5.

Throw out the COVID year and Klieman has never gone worse than 8-4 at his current job.

But Klieman does have a bad habit of losing at home once per season as a big favorite. And injury luck is unpredictable. Even with a bunch of nice pieces back, I also find it hard to believe that K-State can avoid growing pains without Deuce Vaughn, now with the Cowboys, and Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who is with the Chiefs.

Let’s say K-State starts 2-1 in nonconference play, which means it falls to Troy or Missouri, and then drops a home conference game against UCF, TCU or Baylor. That opens the door for 6-6. K-State historically struggles at Oklahoma State and never beats Texas. Going to Lubbock also seems like a loss.

Then again, Klieman also has a habit of winning a game that nobody expects. So let’s bump it up to 7-5. That is my projected floor for this team.

Best-case scenario

This is the section you came here to read.

You want to know what K-State’s ceiling is this season. Good news. It is just as high as last season. The Wildcats once again have Big 12 championship potential.

Teams that return their QB, OC and HC are usually elite in college football. Will Howard should be one of the best passers in the Big 12 this season, and it will be fun to see what Klein cooks up in Year 2 as the team’s play-caller.

If the Wildcats stay healthy and hit the ground running in September, they could very easily start 5-0. It will be hard to keep them out of the Big 12 championship game at that point. Yes, remaining road games against Texas and Texas Tech won’t be easy. But even they drop both of those games they are looking at a 10-2 record.

Sadly, I don’t envision a perfect campaign. K-State hasn’t beaten Texas since 2016 or won at Oklahoma State since 2017. A road game in Lubbock a week after a road game in Stillwater has “loss” written all over it. Winning any of those games will be a nice accomplishment.

That should be enough to get them back to Arlington, and I wouldn’t bet against the defending champs in that game ... even if it is a rematch against the Longhorns.

An 11-2 record, another conference title and another trip to a major bowl game could be in the cards for this group. That doesn’t mean it will happen, but it’s on the table for anyone living in Best Case Scenario Town.

Now, let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.

I’ve got three words for you: cost and convenience.

Picture the K-State football field as your front lawn. Yes, well-manicured grass with purple paint located in the middle would look better than artificial turf. But that also costs quite a bit of money and takes a whole lot of time to maintain.

Oh, and did I mention that hundreds of football players will be running all across your front lawn in spikes every Saturday in the fall?

Maybe you are up for that kind of maintenance. Not me. Not K-State, either.

It’s hard for me to keep my backyard looking green with four kids playing on it in bare feet. There are days I wouldn’t mind switching to an artificial surface.

Once K-State switched to the fake stuff it was able to set it and forget it. The field needs to be replaced every five years or so.

You also don’t have to worry about the groundskeeper having a bad week or weather playing havoc with it — or a Shakira concert making the field unplayable.

It’s just easier.

That being said, grass turf is superior. Kudos to the schools that have them.

Brett Yormark has promised that the conference will come up with a new logo to use next season. He has also mentioned that the league will consider rebranding with a new name.

I am torn on this topic.

Part of me thinks it is time for the Big 12 to switch to a different name. Many of the schools that helped build this conference are now in other leagues. Perhaps it is time to stop honoring past teams like Oklahoma, Texas and Nebraska. Maybe the Big 12 deserves a name that is all about the future.

My biggest fear is that Yormark would sell the naming rights and we would end up with the Taco Bell Conference. But I guess I would OK with Whataburger Conference.

Another part of me thinks the Big 12 name should exist until the universe implodes. When you say “Big 12” most sports fans recognize the name and at least half the teams in the conference. Switching to a new name would erase all the brand equity that was built up over the past three decades.

So I guess I don’t have a super strong opinion on the topic. I could endorse a new name, as long as it’s good. I could get behind sticking with the Big 12, as long as the new logo is cool.

My only real suggestion is that if Yormark decides to come up with a new name for the conference, he shouldn’t use any numbers. The Big 12 hasn’t been numerically correct in forever. Why switch to the Big 16 when more conference realignment is always going to be a threat.

The conference would be better copying the ACC, Big Sky or Conference-USA and just go with words.

My suggestion: The Conference.

That’s all you need. Everyone else, including the Big Ten and the SEC, can bow down to the new Big 12, because it is The Conference.

K-State is already exploring ways to increase revenue to support the sports it already sponsors via selling the naming rights to Bramlage Coliseum and listening to apparel offers from companies not named Nike.

So I don’t think adding sports is high on Gene Taylor’s to-do list.

Some of the new Big 12 schools will have to find weird homes for their Olympic sports. Arizona State has swimming and diving, ice hockey, wrestling, beach volleyball, gymnastics, lacrosse and water polo.

I would personally endorse a K-State hockey team or a K-State wrestling team. Loyal readers of this mailbag also know I have previously opined for an e-sports team.

Still, I don’t think any of that is in the cards.

I am expecting the K-State men’s basketball team to announce its 2023-24 schedule in late August or early September after Jerome Tang and the Wildcats return from the Middle East.

But most of the schedule is already known.

The best nonconference games will be USC (Las Vegas), Nebraska, Wichita State, Villanova, Providence (Bahamas) and Georgia or Miami (Bahamas). Most, if not all, of the other opponents will be mid-majors or low-majors.

In Big 12 play, the Wildcats will play Kansas and Iowa State twice, along with West Virginia and BYU and West Virginia.

My guess is we will see K-State on Big Monday a few times, with both of its games against the Jayhawks potentially landing on ESPN or even CBS.

The rumor mill has been churning with, well, rumors that K-State might consider a switch from Nike to Under Armour as its future apparel provider.

While those rumors could turn out to be much ado about nothing, I can tell you that negotiations with Nike on a contract extension haven’t gone as well as expected. I can also tell you that negotiations with Under Armour have gone better than expected.

That has created a conundrum for the K-State athletic department. Should it accept a better offer from Under Armour or should it stay with Nike, because it has more brand appeal with recruits and current players?

I get the sense that, all things being equal, the Wildcats would prefer to stick with Nike. Momentum appears to be building in that direction. But we will have to wait and see.

Stay tuned for a more in-depth story on this topic in the near future.