Column: Kansas State makes unscheduled arrival among college football elite

The first thing we wondered after Kansas State’s huge win at Oklahoma on Saturday was why Bill Snyder agreed to play Auburn in September.

No. 14 Kansas State (5-1) took over sole possession of first place in the division-less Big 12 and appears to be one of the better, and unheralded, teams in the country.

The Wildcats’ only blemish is a hard-fought, six-point home loss to Auburn.

Will that end up costing Kansas State a spot in the four-team playoff?

Playing nonconference games against the likes of Southeastern Conference power Auburn is anathema to every working fiber of Snyder’s scheduling philosophy.

In 1998, Kansas State nearly made the first BCS title game with a nonconference parlay of Indiana State, Northern Illinois and Louisiana Monroe.

Only a heartbreaking overtime loss to Texas A&M in the Big 12 title game kept Kansas State out of the championship in the Fiesta Bowl.

Why would Snyder agree to play Auburn this year?

Well, of course, he didn’t. The series was made by coach Ron Prince, who took over after Snyder retired in 2005.

Snyder was coaxed back after Prince went 17-20 in three seasons. Snyder immediately backed out of some scheduling commitments (Oregon and Virginia Tech) but was stuck with the return game against Auburn this year. Kansas State, under Prince, lost at Auburn in 2007.

“Some people thought we wouldn’t play the game,” Kansas State Athletic Director John Currie told the Wichita Eagle before last month’s game in Manhattan. “But we never hesitated.”

Gee, why not?

Snyder must be kicking himself now, although Kansas State might be able to survive the Auburn loss if it runs the Big 12 table.

Snyder, who turned 75 this month, continues to prove why he is one of the greatest coaches of his generation.

“You just keep trucking as they say,” Snyder said after Saturday’s 31-30 victory, his second straight win at Oklahoma. “We always say keep sawing wood, keep rowing the boat.”

That isn’t going to be easy: Kansas State has remaining road games at Texas Christian, West Virginia and Baylor.

Fox and enemies?

The comment occurred during halftime while the crew at Fox Sports 1 was reviewing highlights of South Carolina’s easy win over Furman.

Studio analyst Joel Klatt, a former quarterback at Colorado, loosened his lips and let it fly.

“I mean can we have the SEC not play Furman in October and November?” Klatt said. “My goodness.”

Klatt said what a lot of people think about the SEC and its nonconference scheduling philosophy.

It is also hard to imagine Klatt making such a comment if he worked at CBS or ESPN, networks that have business partnerships with the SEC.

Fox, on the other hand, has relaunched another sports offensive against ESPN, but has primary contracts with the Pac-12 and Big 12.

It doesn’t mean Klatt was wrong, but it does illustrate how hard it is to get unvarnished, trustworthy commentary in a world of built-in network biases.

Klatt also could have picked a better example than South Carolina, which has two ranked teams (East Carolina, Clemson) on its nonconference schedule.

He should have mentioned Mississippi State’s nonconference slate of Southern Mississippi, South Alabama, Alabama Birmingham and Tennessee Martin.

Klatt’s comments started a minor brush fire on Twitter with responses from Charles Bloom, sports information director at South Carolina and former SEC communications director.

“Seriously?” Bloom tweeted in response to Klatt’s comment.

One SEC fan tweeted he had never heard of Klatt and wondered about his credentials.

Klatt threw for 46 touchdowns and 7,708 for Colorado during the 2003, ’04 and ’05 seasons.

Klatt could certainly defend Colorado’s nonconference schedule when he played in Boulder. In 2003, Colorado played Colorado State, UCLA, Washington State and Florida State. In 2005, Colorado played at Miami.

Texas over & out

Sunday would be a good day for the University of Texas to step up its in-state recruiting.

Texas A&M, which made a big splash when it bolted the Big 12 for the SEC three years ago, is proving to be one of the biggest frauds of 2014. The Aggies, minus Johnny Manziel, rose as high as No. 6 after a 5-0 start that included an opening win over South Carolina.

Texas A&M has since lost three straight games by a total of 91 points.

Two defeats by 32 total points were not enough to dislodge the No. 21 Aggies from the polls this week, but we’re assuming they’ll drop out after Saturday’s 59-0 loss at Alabama.

The biggest benefactor from early guesswork rankings has been Mississippi State.

The Bulldogs rose from unranked to No. 14 in the AP after a win over now-unranked Louisiana State, and then 11 more spots, to No. 3, after beating Texas A&M.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com