Good foes are hard to find for Virginia Tech, K-State

Sporting News, The, Feb 28, 2000 by Mark Blaudschun

The games will be played late in August. They are designed to showcase teams and programs, as well as to prepare for a regular season that still means everything. But for Virginia Tech and Kansas State, preseason games are more important. It's all about respect--or in the case of the Hokies and Wildcats, a perceived lack of respect

Few programs have been better over the past several years than Virginia Tech and Kansas State. Tech made the climb all the way to the top of the mountain--or dose, at least--last season by going unbeaten in the regular season, gaining the Hokies a spot in the Bowl Championship Series title game in the Sugar Bowl against Florida State.

The Hokies' hard-fought 46-29 loss was seen by many Hokies backers as a moral victory. Yes, Tech deserved to be in that game.

Still, there remain doubters, who look at a non-conference schedule that included wins over lightly regarded Alabama-Birmingham and I-AA James Madison.

Kansas State has had the same problem. Great record, little respect. At first, the Wildcats used a bunker mentality: Who cares if they beat up on teams such as UTEP, Northern Illinois and Utah State? They're wins, and when you had a program that had been as bad as Kansas State's before Bill Snyder arrived, wins are all that count.

That attitude has changed. The first wake-up call was delivered in 1998, after the Wildcats lost the Big 12 rifle game against Texas A&M and slipped all the way down to the Alamo Bowl, despite just one loss.

Another one-loss season and a drop to the Holiday Bowl last year was the second wake-up call.

The message was dear: Kansas State's schedule doesn't have the juice to get the team into the BCS by the wild-card mute. Other programs, such as Tennessee or Michigan, could lose two or three times and breeze into the BCS slots.

An upgrade in the schedule was the only solution, and both schools have tried to do that. They called teams in the Pac-10, Big Ten, SEC and ACC.

But the best the Wildcats and Hokies could get were two-for-one offers, meaning that a team such as Michigan would come to Kansas State to play a regular season game only if Kansas State made two appearances in Ann Arbor.

Both schools also got plenty of flat-out rejections--at least for the foreseeable future--from major-conference schools. No one wants to play a Virginia Tech team with Michael Vick at quarterback

The people running the preseason games tried to help. The Kickoff Classic, for example, wanted Michigan and Virginia Tech. Sorry, said Michigan.

Late last season, Kansas State had one breakthrough. The Wildcats will play Iowa in August. Granted, the Hawkeyes are in a rebuilding mode fight now, but it's better than Northern Iowa.

Virginia Tech has made a tentative deal. The Hokies will play in the Black Coaches Association Classic on August 26 or 27 and will be host for the game.

One problem. They still haven't found an opponent. They'll find one, but it won't be Arizona or Tennessee or a high-profile program from a big conference. It will be someone just as hungry for respect, such as Louisiana Tech or East Carolina.

Still, it is a move in the right direction. "We want to build on everything we accomplished last season," Tech coach Frank Beamer says. "This will give our team an early test and an additional game for our fans as we open the college season."

Yes, it will. But will it give Tech more respect? Will playing Iowa give Kansas State the bump it needs to be regarded on equal terms with Nebraska and Michigan as wild-card entries in the BCS games?

Probably not. At least not immediately. But at least both programs now understand that whom you play matters as much as how you play.

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