Finally, it’s game day for Kansas State

Are you pumped? Are you a quivering mass of nerves? Are you on your knees begging baby Jesus to make Christian McCaffrey just two-tenths slower just this one night?

Today, BracketCat finally rests, because with a trio of number ones — Matt Jones, Kaelin Key, and Logan Stoddard — who went up after yesterday’s Slate, he is finally done. Give that man his very well-deserved annual hand. In the wee hours, KSUEMAW! offered up the last of our pre-season positional previews with a look at the Wildcat signal callers. Stay tuned later as we’ll provide you with the full schedule of this weekend’s remaining college football action, your how-to-watch post for tonight’s game, and of course the first open thread of the 2016 season.

Previews: Kellis Robinett at the Star offers his three-minute preview complete with pessimistic prediction, while Josh Dubow of the Associated Press (via the Burlington Hawk Eye) discusses the inexperience at quarterback for both squads. The Capital-Journal’s Ken Corbitt is also talking about Jesse Ertz, specifically about his second chance to make a first impression.

Just a week ago, it seemed as though the national media were still focused on how bad the Wildcat defense was last year. Things may be turning around quickly. Via the East Bay Times, the San Jose Mercury-News veteran Jon Wilner offers his preview, and isn’t committed to a prediction -- even noting that K-State’s defense may well control this game. And in his profile of the defense, ESPN’s Max Olson flatly states that the Wildcats have one of the best units in the Big 12.

Next, we offer up the Stanford-homeriffic portion of yesterday’s content. For Today’s U, Travis Mewhirter is positively dismissive of K-State. The Stanford Daily has a couple of items of note; Alexa Philippou zeroes in on the three top matchups in the game, which is good news for K-State as both Jordan Willis and Byron Pringle are facing inexperienced newcomers. Meanwhile the staff offer their picks, and they’re evenly split between Stanford winning by 2 touchdowns and Stanford barely escaping with their dignity intact.

Basketball

The Big 12 announced its men’s basketball conference schedule, which means we now know the entire Wildcat schedule. K-State’s sole Big Monday appearance will be on February 6, at Bramlage, against... of course. Kansas.

Volleyball

Football isn’t the only Wildcat sporting event tonight. In fact, the schedule is booked solid. At 5pm, the Volleycats take on Michigan at Bramlage in the opener of the K-State Invitational. Georgia Tech faces Tennessee State afterward. Saturday, the Cats get TSU, and they’ll face off against Georgia Tech at 7:30pm Sunday on ESPN3. (The first two matches are KStateHD.tv only.)

Soccer

The other football heads to Omaha this weekend, first meeting Creighton tonight at 7pm before taking on Nebraska-Omaha Sunday at noon. Audio only via K-State, and we don’t imagine you want to pay the other teams to watch their video feeds.

Other Stuffs

Today’s Sports Extra focuses on the return of WIBW in Topeka to the K-State Sports Network fold after a decade in the wilderness. And at the Capital-Journal, enjoy a slideshow of the 25 most important high school athletes in Kansas this academic year.

A little over nine hours to gird your loins, citizens. We’ll see y’all tonight. Right?