College football is the greatest sport

College Football

At its worst, college football is just watchable. At its best, however, college football is breathtaking in its certifiable insanity, which is why it is indeed the world’s greatest sport. I give you Exhibit A:

In possibly the craziest ever episode of #Pac12AfterDark, UCLA scored 32 unanswered points to beat #19 Washington State 67-63. The two teams combined for 1377 yards of total offense (Wazzu 720, UCLA 657), 56 first downs, and 18 touchdowns. The game featured six lead changes, six turnovers by Wazzu (including three in just the last eight minutes of play), and more UCLA points than in the three prior games combined.

Insanity.

Other slightly less insane but equally noteworthy things happened yesterday, like Wisconsin’s utter domination of erstwhile playoff contender Michigan, Pitt continuing to destroy the dreams of undefeated teams, and the bottom falling out of the SEC (ZOMG Arkansas).

Oh, and Kansas got a standing ovation from a small crowd of fans for their valiant losing effort against West Virginia. Stifle your laughter and read this quote from an actual KU player instead:

Usually, the crowd would have walked out a long time ago, especially when we got down by two touchdowns, and it was still decent crowd out there.

Maybe things really are changing in Lawrence?

Finally, here’s Banner Society, bringing their unique brand of crazy to a sport that probably doesn’t need any more crazy.

Volleyball

In what is fast becoming a pattern for the VolleyCats, the team dropped a 3-1 (28-30, 25-17, 17-25, 23-25) decision to New Mexico in the final game of the North Texas Challenge. It was also the last non-conference game for Kansas State this season.

Brynn Carlson had a career-high 21 kills for the Wildcats, and teammates Anna Dixon (12) and Gloria Mutiri (10) joined her in double figures. Sarah Dixon had her seventh double-double of the season with 46 assists and 12 digs.

The VolleyCats begin conference play next weekend with a 4PM start against TCU on Saturday.

Soccer

Kansas State’s match against #7 BYU was initially postponed due to possible bad weather in Manhattan, but maybe it should have been cancelled altogether, so the Wildcats could have avoided the 5-0 loss they suffered.

The Wildcats were never really in this contest, with the Cougars scoring in the fifth minute and again in the 48th before the wheels fell completely off for Kansas State. The result wasn’t unexpected though. BYU is 8-0-0 on the season and has only given up one goal so far.

The Wildcats will take their 2-5-2 record into conference play at Buser Family Park against reigning Big 12 champion Baylor on Thursday, followed by a match against Texas on Sunday afternoon.

Cross Country

At the Greeno and Dirksen Invitational in Lincoln, the men’s cross-country team finished second in an 18-team field that included winner Iowa and host Nebraska. Manhattan native Cooper Schroeder made his season debut in the event and paced the team in the 8K event with a time of 25:00:6, good for eighth place overall.

The women’s team, plagued by injury, finished in eighth place out of 16 teams. Jaybe Shufelberger was the top finisher for the Wildcats with a 23rd place finish in the 5K race.

Up next, the Wildcats will be in action in South Bend, Indiana, for the Joe Piane Invitational on October 4.

Tennis

On the second day of play at the Marliss Guver Invitational in Auburn, Kansas State notched wins in the first group of matches, with Ines Mesquita/Karine Marion-Job and Rosanna Maffei/Ioana Gheorghita beating Auburn and Wisconsin respectively. In the second group of matches, however, the RacketCats faltered a bit, with Mesquita/Job dropping their match against Ole Miss and Maffei/Gheorghita falling to Yale.

Maffei is still alive in Flight A singles, however, as she advanced to the title match with a win over Auburn’s Madeline Meredith.