Getting to know U(niversities): Kansas State University

A new conference home for TCU means that there are a whole host of new teams to be aware of. Some of them we are well acquainted with, others we've managed to face only once, but for all of them it's a good time to get reacquainted and maybe learn a new thing or two about our new and old conference mates. For that, Frogs O' War is proud to present the facts, stats and trivia of our big 12 brethren. Make the jump if you will, and see what there is to be seen about the only remaining Big 12 North title game representative to remain in the conference (How depressing is that?): The Kansas State University Wildcats.

Tale of the Tape: Kansas State University

Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Stadium: Bill Snyder Family Stadium (Named for current coach Bill Snyder)

Overall Record: 475-613-41. It will take another Bill Snyder or two to get K-State above .500.

Championships: Five conference championships (Three Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championships, one Big Six Championship, one Big 12 Championship)

Conference History: Joined Kansas Intercollegiate Athletic Associaion in football in 1896-1912, joined Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association 1913-1928, co-founded the Big Six Conference in 1929, co-founded the Big 12 Conference in 1996.

Traditions: Kansas State has only one official school color- Purple. They also do an "Eat 'em up, Eat 'em up K-S-U!" chant. Wait, are these their traditions or are they just copying ours? Unlike us, they were once known as the Aggies (as every Ag school was at one time or another I'm fairly sure) and they are really energized by the song Wabash Cannonball- more on that tomorrow.

Rivals: The Nebraska Cornhuskers, the Iowa State Cyclones in the best named rivalry in all sports- Farmageddon- and the Kansas Jayhawks in the Sunflower Showdown. Kansas State, as you can tell from their overall win/loss record wasn't always a good football team, and that record shows in particular against the Nebraska Cornhuskers- the fighting farmers lead the series 78-15-2 (if you removed K-State's series with Nebraska and Oklahoma the Wildcats would be over .500), but since Bill Snyder's hiring in 1990 K-State has won five times against Nebraska- not bad considering the Cornhuskers were probably the team of the 90s. The series with Iowa State is much more even, with the Cyclones holding a slight seven game lead in the overall series, but A.S. (After Snyder) the Wildcats are 19-4 against their Farmageddon foes. However the real hate in KSU is saved for the Kansas Jayhawks- the cross state big brothers lead the series 64-40-5 (Kansas says it's 65-39-5, refusing to honor a mandated forfeit) and the hate runs deep- though again A.S. the Wildcats have turned the series around, registering an 11 game winning streak from 93-03, making up a lot of the ground KU had put up as a result of dominating the early years of the series.

You may remember them from such TCU games as: TCU lost their first two games against Kansas State- in 1922 and 1983, both games predating the author of this piece. TCU is on a three game winning streak against the wildcats, winning the games from 84-86, including every game at Amon Carter Stadium.

Have they been looking at other conferences?: Only wistfully. Kansas State wasn't as bad off as Baylor if the big 12 split, but the Mountain West or Big East would have definitely been their landing spot. KU had delusional dreams of the Big Ten thanks to its AAU membership, but Kansas State didn't even have that. Count them with Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State in the "thank our lucky stars the Big 12 survived" camp- though unlike Baylor, Kansas and Iowa State they repay our glorious bovine overlords with regular defeats. I like their style.

What else is "need to know" about Kansas State University?: That they were, like us, once really awful. Even worse than we were in the 80s, they have the third most losses in all of the FBS- and keep in mind this is despite putting up a 159-83-1 record under Bill Snyder- only Northwestern and Indiana, the regular whipping boys of the Big Ten have more losses. The overall win/loss record shows what an absolutely amazing job Snyder did in building a program- taking a team that hadn't won in over two years when he took over to the cusp of a national championship in '98 and winning a Big 12 championship over National Championship game participant Oklahoma in 2003. Try to imagine Indiana beating Ohio State and Michigan to win the Big Ten championship. Do you ever see it happening? Bill Snyder made it happen, so when people scoff at Kansas State for "being lucky" last season remember- the man can outcoach anyone in the Big 12 on any given day.