Well college football fans, you knew this day was coming. You didn’t know when, where or how it’d hit, but you knew at some point, all college football common logic would go to hell and BCS chaos would ensue.
Finally, it happened Saturday. And no place was the college football world flipped on its head quite like it was in Waco, TX.
That’s because while Oregon was slowly giving away their BCS title hopes one failed third-down conversion at a time, the unofficial end to Kansas State’s title parade came much in a much more abrupt and distinct way. The final score of the Wildcats game against Baylor on Saturday night said it all: Baylor 52, Kansas State 24. To be frank, the game wasn’t even that close.
The truth is that for anyone who watched the game, Baylor was simply the better football team, from start to finish, first whistle to last, and on both sides of the ball. The Bears jumped out to a 7-0 lead just two minutes into the game and Kansas State never cut the Bears’ lead to less than 11 at any point after the midway point of the second quarter. For the Wildcats there were no moral victories, no missed opportunities, and no “what could’ve beens.” Kansas State just got beat up and beat down Saturday night.
And looking over the numbers is an even more shocking indictment of just how bad the Wildcats were, and just how flawless Baylor was in their execution. Kansas State’s was allowing 17.7 points a game coming into Saturday; The 52 points Baylor put up tripled that. The Wildcats were giving up an average of just 351 yards to their opponents prior this weekend; the Bears almost doubled that with 580. And on the other side of the ball, Kansas State had turned the ball over just six times on the year. Collin Klein threw three interceptions himself Saturday, meaning that in the same way Kansas State’s title chances were all but eliminated, so too was Klein’s Heisman buzz.
Speaking of that title chase, it will now have to go on without Kansas State, unless something absolutely chaotic happens. The Wildcats are 10-1 yes, but will be trailing Notre Dame, Alabama, Georgia, Florida and possibly Oregon and/or Florida State when the new BCS numbers are released on Sunday. They also don’t have the benefit of a conference championship game to play in like a handful of those teams do too. Point being that with one game left on their schedule, Kansas State couldn’t have possibly picked a worse time to lose this game (except for their regular season finale, I suppose). Not only do they have one less game to impress pollsters than most of the teams they’re competing with, but the window for other teams to lose and for the Wildcats to move up is essentially non-existent.
Now like so many other teams around the country, all Kansas State can do is sit back, watch, wait and pray that something truly crazy happens.
Then again, given what we saw this weekend, not only does it seem likely that something could happen, but that it probably will.
Maybe the Wildcats aren’t out of it after all.
Welcome to BCS chaos, my friends.
For all his opinion, insight and analysis on college football, be sure to follow Aaron on Twitter @Aaron_Torres.
