VC Goes Bowlin!

Back in August, on this very blog, I said the Kansas State Wildcats would go 7-5 this football season. I even made a friendly 1-dollar wager with good friend and K-State student Alex Reinecke, who said the Wildcats would finish 8-4. Reinecke was looking good until the game at Colorado. He and I texted several times that day as K-State jumped out to an early 14-3 lead only to see the Wildcats fall behind and eventually lose.

Last week's 49-41 track meet victory at North Texas cemented K-State's 7-5 record and their first bowl game since the 2006 Texas Bowl in Houston. One Facebook friend commented on my wallpost the Wildcats should decline any bowl game because of a horrendous defense. The pathetic defense is accurate. Declining a bowl game, unless there are NCAA sanctions involved, should never be an option for a college football team.

No coach will ever turn down 30 extra days of practice from late November to late December. That extra time is so beneficial as these teams start preparing for the 2011 season. While the bowl game itself is more for the fans, coaches and most of the players can start thinking about the goals they will implement next August. The seniors on the team, like K-State running back Daniel Thomas, can begin counting the greenbacks he will begin making this fall at the next level. Other seniors, a bowl game is a reward for four or maybe five years of blood, sweat and tears that were left behind on the practice and game fields.

I also told you back in August the Wildcats would play in the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium. Two media outlets today - Topeka Capital-Journal and Kansas City Star - both are mentioning the Wildcats will end up in New York City. Early indications point to a KSU-Syracuse bowl game which would be a rematch of the Fiesta Bowl game a few years ago in Tempe when Donovan McNabb was Syracuse's QB.

"We're very interested in Kansas State," Pinstripe Bowl Executive Director Mark Holtzman told today's KC Star, "and they are interested in us. Kansas State is right on our radar."

Most of the bowl schedule will be announced after Saturday's conference championship games. The exception this week came from Cotton Bowl officials, who offered its slot to Texas A&M.

One thing is for certain...K-State, Baylor and Texas Tech are vying for the Pinstripe, Texas and TicketCity bowls. The TicketCity Bowl is another rookie bowl which is at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day in Dallas. The Texas Bowl has a 5 p.m. kick on Dec. 29. The Pinstripe Bowl is Dec. 30 at 1:20 p.m. Central.

Baylor, because it went 4-4 in conference play, is expected to land at the TicketCity Bowl. I have no problem with that selection. Baylor beat K-State head-to-head during the season. KSU and Tech both went 3-5 in conference play so the No. 6 bowl slot (TicketCity) should go to the No. 6 team (Baylor).

The Pinstripe Bowl picks seventh and Texas Bowl eighth. Because K-State fans travel well, I see the Wildcats going northeast. That leaves Tech fans traveling across state to Houston for that bowl.

"We're looking at all three (Big XII teams) very closely," Texas Bowl representative Zac Emmons told the Star. "I don't think we can make a bad decision."

The Texas Bowl will likely match someone like Texas Tech against Northwestern or Illinois.

"We're talking to our partners at ESPN, trying to find out what the best fit would be," Emmons said.

Here are the Big XII bowl projections by the Topeka Capital-Journal:

Insight Bowl: Oklahoma State vs. Michigan, Dec. 28, Tempe, Ariz.

Texas Bowl: Baylor vs. Illinois, Dec. 29, Houston

Alamo Bowl: Big XII championship loser vs. Arizona, Dec. 29, San Antonio

Pinstripe Bowl: Kansas State vs. Syracuse, Dec. 30, New York

Holiday Bowl: Missouri vs. Washington, Dec. 30, San Diego

TicketCity Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Northwestern, Jan. 1, Dallas

Fiesta Bowl: Big XII champion vs. Stanford, Jan. 1, Glendale, Ariz.

Cotton Bowl: Texas A&M vs. LSU, Jan. 7, Arlington, Texas

I can't wait until Sunday when all of the bowl slots are filled and fans begin making their travel plans. I love it. It is the most wonderful time of the year.

I told you so!