Gameday!

It’s finally here! It took approximately 300 years to get here, but now is the winter of our anticipation made glorious fall by the return of Kansas State football.

The Wildcats will officially kick off the 2022 season against South Dakota tonight at 6 PM CDT at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. The game will be available on ESPN+ (Big 12 Now) with radio coverage on the K-State Sports Network as well as on SiriusXM (ch 199).

Kansas State is heavily favored to win this game and has all the tools to romp to victory, but South Dakota is a good FCS team coming off a playoff appearance and returns a bunch of starters from last season, so this could be an interesting—if certainly winnable—matchup for the Wildcats (Bailey Zubke, Sioux City Journal).

ICYMI, the second part of the BotC Staff Roundtable is now up. We make some bold (and not-so-bold) predictions for the season.

Several K-State notables are being inducted into the Ring of Honor tonight, among them two standouts from Snyder 1.0: Darren Howard, still the school’s all-time leader in sacks, and Ell Roberson, under center for the first Big 12 title in school history. Both players received personal calls from Bill Snyder himself, and both were overcome by the honor (Arne Green, Topeka Capital-Journal).

Roberson was part of one of the most remarkable seasons at Kansas State, and of course, that huge Big 12 title game against Oklahoma. He recalls that even most of the purple faithful didn’t think the Wildcats had a shot that day, but it turned into one of the greatest Kansas State games of all-time. Roberson was invited (by Collin Klein) to tell the story to current Wildcats, and he cherished the opportunity to relive it all (Kellis Robinett, Wichita Eagle).

It’s the opening weekend of college football across the country, and there are a couple of big name matchups on tap today. #3 Georgia takes on #11 Oregon at 2:30 CDT in Atlanta, technically a neutral site but practically a home game for the Bulldogs. Oregon is led by new head coach Dan Lanning, most recently the defensive coordinator at Georgia, and former Auburn QB Bo Nix now plays for the Ducks.

Later in the evening (when we’re all busy watching a more important game), it will be a game of Top 5 teams when #2 Ohio State plays #5 Notre Dame. Personally, I think both teams are a bit overrated out of the gate, but this is a matchup with playoff implications, Heisman race buzz, and some interesting remarks by Notre Dame head coach Marcus Freeman, a former Buckeye.

Since our game is on late, this Slate is your early game open thread post.

As always, all your TV listings for the day can be found HERE.

Let’s go, Cats!