Kansas State Finally Plays Someone...
 

... and falls. I switched back and forth between K-State/Marshall and Ohio State/Bowling Green, and I gotta tell you, Marshall left seven points on the field in the kicking game, so this coulda been worse. Marshall absolutely dominated the offensive and defensive fronts.

The last time K-State lost a September game against their softy schedule? Nineteen eighty-nine, also against a MAC squad.

I don't think this K-State team is gonna be much of a challenge for the Big-12 powers. I don't care that they don't have their star quarterback. If you lose the battle up front to Marshall, you are in trouble with the Big-12 season.

Kansas State just eliminated themselves from the National Championship picture, even if they run the table. Their pathetic strength of schedule will kill them in the BCS computers, who don't like losses to much-lower ranked teams nor puny schedules.

The only way you get respect and recruits is if you play people. Something which Kansas State does not do and I'm glad they lost. However, even if K-State would have won with their cupcake schedule they wouldn't have gotten a BCS bid anyway.

Sure most teams schedule cupcakes along they way but then they progress to a level of opponent that is at least competitive and the victory means more than inflated stats.

Maybe one day the AD and the coach at K-State will finally get a clue.

"Pathetic strength of schedule."

So Nebraska, Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma State are bad teams?

Nebraska is questionable, we'll see how they pan out as the season progresses.

Two non-Div IA team shouldn't count (and only one would count as per BCS rules).

California is #59 (of 117, according to CFRC), Troy State is #88, they lost to #74 Marshall, and they get #110 Baylor on November 1.

The BCS SOS (strength of schedule) of all known opponents for this season is 0.5005 as of the start of today's games, which is good for #54 overall and 2.16 BCS points right off the bat. Their computer average for the 4 BCS computer polls currently available is 13.75, and losing to Marshall will send that into near-freefall.

Texas already lost to Arkansas, and Colorado has already lost to Washington State. Either of those teams losing once or twice more isn't inconceivable.

Barring all other potential contenders collecting 2 losses, Kansas State is - for all intents and purposes - eliminated from the National Championship picture, even if they win all other games.

None of them are Top Ten. I'm not sayin they're bad, but for the BCS computers, they're not Top Ten (altho I think Texas and Nebraska will sneak in there) and it won't help them get to N'Orlans.

i watched the whole damn marshall game to see poor ksu lose.

i can tell u that marshall would've gotten raped if ell-train had been playing.

jeff schwinn was good, but the offense wasnt designed for a qb like him.
he just doesnt have the speed of ell-train.

i still think ksu is a good team and will be back to normal once ell-train is back.

So if a team loses they are bad? I will agree they are probably out of the championship picture, but they will still play some good teams.

If a good team loses to someone who is poorly ranked, the computers drop kick them to the corner.

Last week, Kansas State was #16 in Colley's rankings. Now they're #42. Sagarin dropped them from #15 to #19, but right now they're inflated in Sagarin's due to having one game more than everyone else; they'll plumment next week on their bye week. Billingsley and Massey have yet to report this week, but don't be surprised at 10-20 place drops in those. (Three BCS computer polls won't report results until mid-October.)

Lest you think the computers are irrelevant, ask Marshall from 1999. Even if they had finished first in both AP and ESPN, they wouldn't have been 10th in the BCS because of the computers. {Source: CollegeBCS.com}

As for my opinion on Kansas State, a steady diet of cupcakes won't get you into shape for the Conference Run, especially when one of the cupcakes bite back. I didn't think they were a legitmate contender to begin with.