K-State

K-State is kinda cool I guess. They won three Big 12 Championships last year, but they are only on track to repeat in one sport. We all know how the football season went down, 7-5. Actually I do not think that I ever mentioned that they beat Michigan in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl- so yay! They are virtually eliminated from the Big 12 race in basketball- you know- unless KU decides to lose three in a row and Texas and Oklahoma do the same thing AND K-State wins out. In baseball (which I basically know nothing about) K-State is expected to repeat and is currently ranked in the top 25 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Back to basketball.

There is a different system in basketball compared to the football system. In football, K-State played three out-of-conference games in football, one against a Division 1AA school. In basketball, they played 13 out-of-conference games, all of them against division one teams (all teams in division one are united- making the total number of teams 351). K-State faces every team in the Big 12 every year in football, and also in basketball- twice. K-State will play 31 regular season games in basketball though they only played 12 in football.

In football, there are 35 (soon to be 39) bowl games that feature 70 teams. In basketball, there are two tournaments, one is the real one that features 68 teams and the other is the NIT which is basically the official "You tried!" tournament. In basketball, there is a very complicated way that the teams in the tournament are decided. A bunch of people have to pick from all the teams in the nation- except for the automatic 32 conference champions from all the different conferences who get automatic bids- to determine the best possible tournament lineup. They also have to seed the teams to make sure that bad teams are eliminated quickly and good teams to not have to face each other too early in the tournament.

The process of selecting teams is so complicated that the committee uses outside sources such as the RPI (Ratings Percentage Index) and the BPI (Basketball Power Index) to help them decide who to include in the tournament.

Right now K-State is in a good place as far as RPI at 35 and BPI at 44. K-State is also on the verge of being ranked in the top 25 in the AP and USA Today Polls. So Kansas State is virtually a lock for the tournament unless the sky falls.

Some things need to be established- #1 -like in football- the Big 12 is the best conference, Except it is actually true in basketball. #2 The Big 10 is the SEC of basketball- totally overrated. #3 remember that Wichita State is the official bandwagon team in the state of Kansas right now and it is highly advised that you cheer them on.

So now you know a little about how to play the game AND how to cheer for it. A+ for you