Kansas State football coaches had a busy summer preparing for five Big 12 opponents

When the Big 12 announced its scheduling matchups for the next four years back in November of 2023, Kansas State football coach Chris Klieman knew that he and his staff were in for a long summer.

Advanced scouting is challenging enough when preparing for familiar conference opponents. Just imagine getting ready to face five new ones in one season.

That is exactly where the Wildcats find themselves in 2024 with a schedule that features five first-time conference opponents. Welcome league newcomers Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado, plus second-year members Brigham Young and Cincinnati.

“It definitely gave us a lot more work in the summer,” Klieman said Tuesday during his Big 12 media day news conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. “The month of June is already busy enough with recruiting and camps, and now we don’t have the database like you’d have with a (Texas) Tech or a Baylor or a TCU.

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“We’ve got five new schools. Even BYU and Cincinnati have been in our league, but we didn’t play them last year, so we don’t have much data on them. Then we’ve got the two Arizona schools and Colorado, so it’s a lot of work.”

To be fair, the Big 12 is only responsible for Arizona State, Colorado, BYU and Cincinnati. Arizona was scheduled years ago as a nonconference opponent, and there simply was not enough time for either team to find a replacement game.

That’s fine with Klieman.

“I’m glad that we’re playing Arizona,” he said of the prime-time matchup on Friday, Sept. 13 in Manhattan. “They’re a terrific football program, and it’s a great early-season game for the Big 12 to get on national TV on a Friday night.

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“So that excites us, and I know it excites Arizona. There’s really good talent on both teams.”

The fact that K-State was No. 2 and Arizona No. 5 in conference preseason polls doesn’t hurt. The same can’t be said for the Wildcats’ other first-time opponents, with all four picked to finish in the bottom half of the standings.

Still, K-State super-senior linebacker Austin Moore, said the players have no complaints about the schedule.

“There’s definitely a lot of excitement around it, just seeing some of those places,” he said of road trips to Colorado and BYU. “Getting to play in Boulder, getting to play in Provo, it’s definitely exciting.”

Even Klieman, the extra prep work notwithstanding, embraces the idea of bringing some new blood into the league.

“I think it’s excitement for the fans for both schools, as far as whether it’s us going to Provo (BYU) and seeing a great environment — because I’ve been there and I know it’s a phenomenal environment — to us going to Boulder and seeing a great environment, or those other schools potentially coming to our place and seeing a great environment in Manhattan,” Klieman said. “I think the fan bases of all the schools are going to be excited because they’re going to see really good football, and they’re going to see some different teams that they haven’t seen throughout the years.”

Arne Green is based in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett network. He can be reached at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.