The Big 12 schedule was released this afternoon with some interesting matchups on the horizon in its first ever season with 14 teams. The conference welcomes in Brigham Young, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston to the conference which makes the schedule a non-round robin schedule for the first time since 2011.

The K-State Wildcats’ Big 12 title defense will begin on Saturday, September 2nd as they welcome in Southeast Missouri.

A week later, they take on a Troy Trojans team from the Sun Belt conference after a 12-2 season which included a conference title and a bowl win over UTSA in the Cure Bowl.

The back end of K-State’s home-and-home with Missouri will be on September 16th in Columbia, MO after defeating the Tigers in 2022 by 28 points on a rainy September afternoon in Manhattan.

Their first conference game will be at home against UCF on September 23rd as the two teams will square off for the first time since 2010. It’s also K-State’s first Big 12 opener in Manhattan since 2017.

After a bye on the 30th, K-State’s first October game will be in Stillwater against Oklahoma State on Friday, October 6th. It will be the first non-Saturday regular season game since their game against Stanford in 2016, which was on a Friday. It’s also their first non-Saturday Big 12 game since 2015 against Baylor, which fell on a Thursday night.

They will have an extra day off to prepare for Texas Tech in Lubbock on October 14th where K-State hasn’t lost since 2015.

A big home matchup follows that one for the Cats as they play TCU on October 21st following their overtime victory over the Horned Frogs in the Big 12 title game.

They follow that up on October 28th with their first ever meeting against the Houston Cougars in Manhattan.

K-State will then try to snap their six-game losing streak against Texas in Austin on November 4th. Texas is the only team Chris Klieman hasn’t beaten among the previous ten Big 12 teams since becoming the head coach in 2019.

Two of their last three games are at home with all of them in the Sunflower State. Their first being against Baylor on November 11th and then travelling to Lawrence to play a KU team that has done nothing this offseason but retain all of their starters and added good pieces from the transfer portal. That matchup is set for November 18th with the Jayhawks hoping to snap a 14-game losing streak to their in-state rivals dating back to 2008.

The season finale will be the annual “Farmageddon” game against Iowa State at Bill Snyder Family Stadium on November 25th. K-State has only lost to Iowa State once in Manhattan since 2006.

Kansas State will not be playing Oklahoma for the first time since 2010 and West Virginia for the first time since they entered the Big 12 in 2012. They also don’t play BYU or Cincinnati in their first years in the conference.

The Wildcats bring back all of their offensive line and their quarterback but lose some big pieces among their skill positions and secondary.

They have added some nice pieces in the portal, but it will take a lot for the Cats to become the first non-Oklahoma back-to-back champion in the conference since Baylor in 2013 and 2014.