The Kansas State Wildcats (4-1) are set to take on the Oklahoma Sooners (5-1) in a huge game with Big 12 Championship hopes looming.
With Kansas State coming off a bye week, head coach Bill Snyder will make sure his team is fresh and well prepared for a tough task at hand: beating OU in Norman, where they have not lost since 2012. Coincidentally, the Wildcats were one of the two teams to defeat the Sooners in Norman that season.
On the other hand, Oklahoma is coming off a brutal match up versus their Red River rival in the Texas Longhorns. OU narrowly escaped with a 31-26 victory that saw them struggle on offense. A win, in which head coach Bob Stoops claimed afterwards, "We've got a lot to work on..."
On paper, these two teams are almost identical in every statistical category. Oklahoma scores 40.5 points per match, while allowing 21.5 opponent ppg. Kansas State averages a slightly higher ppg at 40.8 and allows slightly lower opponent ppg at 21.0. Both teams are in the top 50 in the nation for each category.
Can it get anymore intriguing? Of course, this matchup will shadow the Florida State-Notre Dame game, but do not think for a second this game is not as big. There is no doubt the motivation level for these two teams will be enormous. With the stakes this high, the tension will be as well. Kansas State is set out to show they can play with the big boys, further proving that after coming up just short of upsetting SEC powerhouse Auburn earlier in the season.
Without a doubt, the loser of this game will be all but eliminated from having a chance at the conference title. Even the winner will still have a rough road ahead with more top 25 ranked teams looming in the remaining schedule, but to get there you must survive the showdown in Norman.