By Ryan Lackey, K-State Athletics Communications
Kansas State will open the 2016 football season with a marquee nationally-televised matchup against Stanford the evening of Friday, September 2 in Palo Alto, Athletics Director John Currie has announced. The home-and-home agreement with the Pac -12 power finalizes the non-conference portion of K-State’s 2016 schedule.
Following the opener at Stanford, the Wildcats will host Florida Atlantic on September 17 and Missouri State on September 24 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium to close out the non-conference slate. Stanford will make a return trip to Manhattan on September 4, 2021. Time and television network designation for the Stanford game will be announced at a later date.
“We are excited to announce a home-and-home series with Stanford of the Pac-12 Conference,” Currie said. “With more than 7,500 friends and alumni in the state of California, and our game there next season taking place over Labor Day weekend, this series gives the K-State Nation a great opportunity to again showcase its national reputation as one of America’s top traveling fan bases.”
The Stanford agreement continues a solid trend of marquee matchups for the Wildcats as K-State has already played recent series with Auburn (2007, 2014), UCLA (2009, 2010) and Miami (Fla.) (2011, 2012), while future series with Mississippi State (2018, 2019) and Vanderbilt (2017, 2020) have previously been announced. The Wildcats and Cardinal have never met on the football field heading into next season’s opener.
The conference portion of the schedule will be released in the coming weeks. The 2016 season will be one in which K-State will host four league games at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, which coupled with the two home non-conference games will provide a rare occurrence of less than seven home games for the Wildcats. K-State is the only Big 12 Conference program to play seven or more games in its home stadium in each of the last five years, and following six home games in 2016, the Wildcats will expect to have at least seven home games annually from 2017-2021.
“We kept working every possible angle to find a seventh home game, but with just 11 months remaining before the 2016 season, the Stanford series became an attractive option that gives us an opportunity to further our program and University on a national level,” Currie added. “This accomplishes our goal of having at least 11 FBS opponents on the schedule each season and ensures that we will have a high-visibility peer conference opponent on our schedule for the next six years, including two SEC games and one Pac-12 game right here in Bill Snyder Family Stadium over that span. With the incredible annual gauntlet of the Big 12’s true round robin format, our schedule needs to make sense for K-State and having marquee non-conference opponents in Manhattan is one way we honor our fans as well as accomplish our goal of providing Value to the University, Community and State.”
From 2011-2015, the Cats averaged 7.2 home games, compared to an average of 6.28 among the other nine Big 12 schools. West Virginia has the next highest average number at 6.6 and three Big 12 teams averaged 6.0 home stadium games per season. With the 2017 non-conference slate also finalized and multiple non-conference home games already under contract or pending contract for each of the years 2018-2021, K-State is on track to host seven home games annually each of those five years as well.
With 23-consecutive sellouts at Bill Snyder Family Stadium heading into this week’s matchup versus No. 19 Oklahoma, fans are encouraged to join the K-State football season ticket wait list and can do so by visiting www.k-statesports.com/tickets or calling 1-800-221-CATS.
Upcoming K-State Football Non-Conference Opponents (all subject to change)
2016
Sept. 2 at Stanford
Sept. 10 BYE
Sept. 17 Florida Atlantic
Sept. 24 Missouri State
2017 (Five Home Big 12 games)
Central Arkansas
Charlotte
at Vanderbilt
2018 (Four Home Big 12 games)
Mississippi State
UTSA
Home TBA
2019 (Five home Big 12 games)
Bowling Green
at Mississippi State
Home TBA
2020
Vanderbilt
Buffalo
2021
Stanford
