K-State Slate: 10.13.14 - Getting Back in the Groove

The Wildcats moved up two spots in the coaches' poll and three in the AP, landing at #14 in both. In the process, we've finally managed to witness the dethroning of Florida State from the top spot: all hail your new overlords from Starkvegas, and oh look they're on K-State's schedule in four years.

A thought: many Big 12 fans, and by extension K-State fans, really hate the whole SEC thing. But let's pause for a moment to consider something. Mississippi State has never reached this pinnacle before. They are pre-1998 Kansas State. For that matter, Ole Miss has a long-suffering fanbase, but they've finally got something to cheer about now too. So while we're busy engaging in inter-conference warfare over exposure and opportunity, let's take a moment to tip a hat to the Magnolia State -- because no matter what you might think of the SEC, there's no question whatsoever based on resume (in Mississippi State's case) and on-field eye test (for Ole Miss) that these really are, at worst, two of the top four teams in the country this year.

USA Today's Paul Myerberg has K-State at the top of his playoff dark horse contender list. He also runs down his surprises and disappointments through the first half of the season.

SI's Andy Staples also checks in with his mid-season report, and tips us off to yet another place you simply have to eat.

Matt Brown at Sports on Earth recaps week 7 and previews week 8, and while he's not explicit about it, he seems to like K-State's chances Saturday.

NBC's Zach Barnett says the Big 12 now has a claim on being college football's deepest conference. Barnett does make a couple of errors, though: one of fact, as he seems to think the Wildcats lost at Auburn; the other of analysis, as he seems to think the losers of this week's OU-KSU and TCU-OSU games will slide out of the poll entirely. Uh-uh.

Bill Bender at the Sporting News wants us to know that the SEC isn't a shoo-in to get two teams into the playoff. In fact, he thinks it's unlikely.

David Ubben offers up his power rankings, and allows that he was very nearly convinced to move K-State back up to #3 ahead of the Sooners... but thinks the Wildcats haven't beaten anyone. They can fix that this weekend, right?

As for the local beat, Ken Corbitt profiles Travis Green and his setbacks, and Blair Kerkhoff's weekly roundup focuses on Royal outfielder Jarrod Dyson -- who's from Mississippi, and is pretty excited this week for some reason.

On a day when K-State made it to #14, their own #14, Curry Sexton, was the focus of Kelly McHugh's latest profile for K-State Sports Extra.

Meanwhile, down in Oklahoma, the Tulsa World's John Klein says the Oklahoma schools are desperately seeking offense, while John Shinn at the Norman Transcript notes that the Sooners are having troubles on third down -- both converting on offense, and stopping the opposition on defense.

Olivia Eliasson captured the individual title, leading the women's golf team to its second victory of the season at the Ron Moore Women's Intercollegiate in Denver. The Wildcats posted a seven-stroke victory over Kansas, and also bested teams from Nebraska, Georgetown, and a variety of Big Sky schools. K-State had four golfers in the top ten at the event as Connie Jaffrey tied for fifth, Carly Ragains was seventh, and Madison Talley tied for ninth. The Wildcats will return to the course at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, for the Palmetto Intercollegiate on October 26-28.

K-State continued its domination of Alabama in all sporting events in which they actually run into one another, taking down the Crimson Tide 10-1 on Saturday at Timbercreek. It's the 14th straight home win for the Wildcats. The fourth-ranked 'Cats are off until November 8, when they'll put that home winning streak on the line again against #2 Oklahoma State.