Kansas State basketball’s Big 12 schedule has always been a slog. Now it’s an even longer routine.
With the conference expanding to 16 schools – welcome to Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah; so long for Oklahoma and Texas — the Big 12 announced Thursday that it will increase its league slate by two games, to 20, for the 2024-25 season. Each team will face five opponents home and away, five only at home and the other five away from home.
Dates, reporting times and television information will be announced later. For K-State, the 20-game league schedule is the largest in school history.
K-State’s only home-and-home rivalry remains the Sunflower Showdown with Kansas. The Wildcats will also play Iowa State and Oklahoma State twice again, along with Arizona State and Cincinnati.
Combine that with visits from Arizona, Colorado, Houston, Texas Tech and West Virginia, and it makes for an impressive lineup of home conference tryouts for Bramlage Coliseum. Road-only opponents are Baylor, Brigham Young, Central Florida, TCU and Utah.
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Some early preseason polls have KU, Iowa State, Houston, Arizona and Baylor ranked in the top 10 nationally.
The Wildcats have played Kansas home and away every year since 1912, and at least once every season since 1907, with the 301 meetings being the sixth most played rivalry in Division I. K-State has also faced Iowa State in home and on the road every year since 1918.
The Big 12 played a 16-game conference schedule from its inception in 1996 to 2011, then jumped to an 18-game double round robin slate when it shrank to 10 members in 2011. It remained at 18 games last year, its only season with 14 schools, but with only five home-and-home matchups.
Arne Green lives in Salina and covers Kansas State University sports for the Gannett Network. He can be contacted at agreen@gannett.com or on Twitter at @arnegreen.
This article originally appeared in the Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas State basketball faces tough 20-game Big 12 schedule
