K-Stated

Asked Jim Epps, Kansas State’s senior associate athletics director, about a report this week in the Tulsa World that said Oklahoma State and K-State were in discussions to face each other in football in what would count as non-conference, likely season-opening games in 2013 and 2016.

Not quite, Epps said Friday.

He said he and the rest of the athletic directors in the Big 12 have been lamenting how expensive non-conference games have gotten and, consequently, how difficult they’ve become to schedule. So, he and his Big 12 A.D. brethren - about two months ago, Epps said - began kicking around the idea of staging high-profile, regional interleague matchups that might be appealing.

For instance, Epps said he spoke with Texas A&M’s Bill Byrne about perhaps playing the Aggies in Arrowhead Stadium or the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

But nothing was ever definitive, Epps said.

Also, the 2008 football schedule, which can be found here, is final. Epps said there had been some internal conversations about attempting to drop Fresno State, which has been nothing but trouble for the Wildcats, but they were squashed.

"We asked Ron (Prince), ‘Do you want to consider an alternate opponent?’," Epps said. "He said forget it. So, the schedule is set."