Kansas State's Chris Klieman Challenges Perceived SEC Rankings Bias

Oct 19, 2024; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; Kansas State Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman celebrates with fans after defeating the West Virginia Mountaineers at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

It appears Kansas State coach Chris Klieman is fed up with the rankings biased with other Power Five conference.

This week, he addressed the notion of other leagues getting favorable treatment after leagues ahead of the Big 12.

“Other teams can lose in other leagues and that league is really good," Klieman said. "We lose in [the Big 12] and this league stinks. I don’t understand that."

At 9-2, Arizona State is the highest Big 12 team at No. 16. The other ranked teams in the league are Iowa State (18), BYU (19) and Kansas State (24) and Colorado (25). The SEC, meanwhile has three teams with three loss _ Alabama, Ole Miss, South Carolina _ ranked ahead of any team in the Big 12.

Two more three-loss SEC teams _ Texas A & M and Missouri _ are higher than Kansas State and Colorado. Klieman had an issue with that.

“As a conference, we need to get together and figure some things out,” Klieman said. “Because for a bunch of teams to be (10-2 or 9-3) and us only get one of those teams in the College Football Playoff, then we’ve got to cancel one of these games. I don’t care what people say, we go to eight games in league play. Or we stay with nine, but play an FCS team or play a Group of Five team.”

Shandel Richardson is the publisher of Kansas State Wildcats On SI. He can be reached at shandelrich@gmail.com

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