It’s official. It’s Week 5 and the Kansas State Wildcats aren’t at the bottom of the Big 12 standings anymore! I know that probably isn’t a huge cause for celebration for most folks and it’s not something that most people will really care about. It doesn’t even truly impact Texas Tech in a significant way, but there is a minor storyline that is worth noting here.
UCF lost its conference opener today. And that’s the angle that should be addressed here. Because the Knights fell to the Wildcats in Manhattan, UCF didn’t get the chance to go 1-0 in Big 12 play. And thus, UCF dropped a bit in the Big 12 standings and didn’t get a chance to be tied for second in the Big 12 alongside Texas Tech.
And I think that’s what I find interesting here. As we continue to see what the Big 12 title race is going to look like (and how some teams are fighting to get back into that sort of race, shoutout to Kansas State), UCF’s hopes of disrupting the conference and causing some chaos took a bit of a hit.
And the conference standings below Texas Tech are a bit of a logjam full of chaos in their own right. Here’s how the standings look now, following Kansas State’s win over the Knights:
Big 12 standings, Week 5: Kansas State beating UCF provided a bit of conference standings chaos below Texas Tech
- Arizona State Sun Devils (4-1 overall, 2-0 Big 12)
- Iowa State Cyclones (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big 12)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big 12)
- Houston Cougars (4-0 overall, 1-0 Big 12)
- Cincinnati Bearcats (3-1 overall, 1-0 Big 12)
- Kansas Jayhawks (3-2 overall, 1-1 Big 12)
- Kansas State Wildcats (2-3 overall, 1-1 Big 12)
- Arizona Wildcats (3-0 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- BYU Cougars (3-0 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-2 overall, 0-0 Big 12)
- UCF Knights (3-1 overall, 0-1 Big 12)
- TCU Horned Frogs (3-1 overall, 0-1 Big 12)
- Utah Utes (3-1 overall, 0-1 Big 12)
- Baylor Bears (2-2 overall, 0-1 Big 12)
- Colorado Buffaloes (2-2 overall, 0-1 Big 12)
- West Virginia Mountaineers (2-2 overall, 0-1 Big 12)
That win has to feel good for Kansas State, right? It just absolutely has to. There’s no way it doesn’t. It gave the Wildcats a very real chane to salvage their season (even if there is still a lot of work to be done on that front). And it’s also the first real time that we got to see Kansas State look like a complete team this season.
Joey McGuire and the Red Raiders will face both of these teams later this season. Texas Tech goes to Manhattan to play Kansas State on November 1st while UCF will come to Lubbock on November 15th.