ARLINGTON, Texas — For coach Bill Snyder’s second Wildcat turnaround and 11th-ranked Kansas State’s surprising season, the Cotton Bowl is an appropriate ending.
When the Wildcats first played in the Cotton Bowl 15 years ago, that New Year’s Day game was a watershed moment for a program that had evolved from consecutive winless seasons just before Snyder arrived. They went again at the end of the 2000 season, during a stretch of six 11-win seasons in seven years before the coach’s brief retirement.
Seventh-ranked Arkansas, meanwhile, gets another game at Cowboys Stadium, where a stunning second-half comeback against Texas A&M three months ago was a catalyst in a season when the Razorbacks’ only losses are to No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Alabama, the two teams playing in the BCS national championship game next week.
The Cotton Bowl matchup of 10-2 teams tonight is the only postseason game featuring the Big 12 against the SEC, which expands next season with the addition of outgoing Big 12 members Texas A&M and Missouri. No other non-BCS bowl had both teams ranked even in the top 15 of the Bowl Championship Series standings, much less the top eight.