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First Down
Kansas State fans now is the time, here is your moment. Your team has made its name over the last few years on strong defense. Your fan base has complained long and loud about exclusion from the Bowl Championship Series as an at-large selection. The claim was dead on in 1998, not justified in 1999. Having broadcast the Wildcats bowl game against a very good Washington team, it became clear that the '99 Wildcats were a very good football team, but not strong enough to be a no doubt about it at-large selection.


	Bill Snyder and the Wildcats have a chance to get to a BCS bowl.

So here is the opportunity for the third time to be a charm. Arrowhead Stadium will be filled with plenty of your fans, in a stadium where you opened the season way back in the Midwestern heat of August. Despite the early Weather Channel numbers saying it will not be the potential December night time big chill, you still have the right ingredients for an upset of No. 1 Oklahoma. Factor in what we have seen over the last three weeks, defenses giving the underneath stuff keeping the Sooners big plays to a minimum, and you see the opening to be part of the BCS for 2000 as the Big 12 representative.

To even say that Bill Snyder's program has been playing for the Big 12 automatic bid twice, compared to Nebraska's once in the last three years, is a concept that is still hard to believe. But for acceptance on the biggest stage there needs to come another level of validation. While the legacy of this program has been laid in concrete with the turnaround of the century in college football, its crowning moment could come Saturday night. For the Wildcats fans whose purple passionate cries for inclusion have fallen on deaf errors the last few years; simply tell yourself this week it's up to you not anyone else.

Second Down
Filling in those at-large teams will not be very easy. The list of candidates would be clear and relatively easy to decipher with wins by the favored Sooners and Gators in the Big 12 and SEC Title games. Notre Dame and Virginia Tech would be the most likely candidates. The Irish based on gate appeal and accomplishment against a difficult schedule will be a choice. I also see an 11-and-1 Tech team getting the nod over Oregon State by virtue of a stronger non-conference schedule and considering their only loss would be to one of the two teams playing the best football in the nation right now, Miami (and that loss occurred without superstar QB Michael Vick).

If either the Gators or Sooners are upset it could push the Hokies out into the cold (the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville) and give either league (the Big 12 or SEC) two BCS teams and serious holiday fat for the kitty.

The BCS game slotting will become interesting after that -- let's play this out on the assumption of wins by Oklahoma and Florida along with no jumping by the Hurricanes over the Seminoles. The Orange Bowl would bring together Oklahoma against Florida State for the title. Florida will play in the Sugar Bowl as the SEC rep and we know that Washington and Purdue are ticketed for Pasadena's Rose Bowl. This leaves slots against the Gators under the Dome and both Fiesta Bowl spots.

Now let's say Notre Dame and Virginia Tech are the BCS at-large choices. Does the Fiesta Bowl match Notre Dame against the Hokies leaving a Florida-Miami matchup for the Sugar Bowl? Or would you rather dust off the old Catholics vs. Convicts T-shirts for a Notre Dame-Miami game with Florida playing Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl. Oops, one problem. the Hokies were just in New Orleans last year and their fans don't figure to travel as well for a repeat engagement.

And you think all of this is easy to figure out.

Third Down
The other bowls are a frustrating scene to follow. Game choices are made not totally based on merit but on how many will come follow the old alma matter to a postseason game. The key word when sifting through the conference tie-in literature is selection or pick. In most cases a bowl has the second or third pick in a league as opposed to second or third place team. This is why Michigan is at the Citrus Bowl and Northwestern, which beat Michigan, is going to the Alamo Bowl.

No league is seeing this shakedown more than the SEC where Auburn's deal making athletic director David Housel has cashed in on fans excitement over the Tigers' winning season. Housel made a conditional deal with the Citrus Bowl that places the Tigers, with more eager to travel fans, in Orlando instead of Tennessee. The Vols-Wolverines game looked like a guarantee this time last week, but these are the things that happen when bowl bids are on the line. The main question becomes not how did you do this season, but how do you travel?

Do not blame the bowls and do not say it would be better in a playoff system -- if we had a playoff most of these teams would not be heard from.

Fourth Down
Speaking of being heard from, I am sick of hearing the constant whining from national sports journalists about the bowl system. Maybe some of these people who have gotten too far removed from spending time with the players on these teams should ask the players if they enjoy bowl trips. The world of college athletics is full of hypocritical situations, chief among them that things are done for student-athletes. I do agree that down the line a playoff system done properly would be the best alternative, but until all parties are ready to arrive at that, why can't everyone accept a system that is far superior to the old ways of the business and still provides many teams with an enjoyable reward at season's end. After a long season, the players enjoy the trips to the mid-level bowl games.

It is nice to see the schools that are not part of the title chase but still had a successful season, being rewarded by having their players see a part of the country they otherwise might never visit, play a team they would never see and do it all during the holiday break. The entire system is not a failure, if you ask the people it directly impacts -- the players. I'll take their word over people who just like to be heard any day.

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