After extending The Streak to 18 games last week, the Wildcats again hit the road, heading to the suburbs of Phoenix with at least a winning record in their pocket. Coming out on top this afternoon would be a huge step.
But their opponent this week is always a tough out, and the Cats have never had success against them. Gulp.
The Game
The Kansas State Wildcats (4-2, 1-2 Big 12) visit the Arizona State Sun Devils (3-3, 1-2 Big 12).
This will be the eighth meeting between the schools, most recently a 24—14 Arizona State win in Manhattan in 2024. The Sun Devils won the first five meetings in the series, usually by three or more touchdowns; K-State’s only win over Arizona State was a 34-27 win in the 2002 Holiday Bowl.
Arizona State is led by the youthful Kenny Dillingham, who is 7 months younger than K-State’s own wunderkind Collin Klein yet is already in his fourth season as the Sun Devils’ head coach. In that time he’s posted a 25-20 record, including an 11-3 record and a playoff berth in 2024 after routing Iowa State to win the Big 12 in their first season in the league.
The record may be a bit misleading for Arizona State. Two of their losses have come to Texas A&M and Texas Tech, no slouches but the losses were ugly; the third was an absolute trouncing by Baylor. Their wins haven’t been much to write home about either, beating Kansas by a single touchdown and failing to dominate Hawai’i the week before being trashed by Tech. All of this has led to a change at quarterback, with Mikey Keene — a sixth-year transfer who had a couple of pretty good years at Fresno State — taking over for an ineffective Cutter Boley.
The Sun Devils are a sub-average running team, and have been a little better than average throwing the ball. However, coming on in relief against Texas Tech Keene was far more effective than Boley had been all season, so judging the air game for Arizona State is not without complications. Defensively, they’re a mid-level team against the pass, and have had about as much trouble with the run as the Wildcats have this season.
Kickoff
Saturday, September 26, 2:45pm CT at Mountain America Stadium (53,599) in Tempe, Arizona.
Tickets
If you’re in the area, there are good seats available cheap through third-party vendors. You can get in the gate for as low as $13, get into the end zone for as low as $21, and friends there are seats behind the K-State bench going for around 50 bucks. The median price for tickets is a mere $70. If you’re part of the Phoenix Wildcat diaspora, get down there.
Weather
Morning temps will be in the high sixties, edging into the low seventies for peak tailgating time. It’ll get into the upper seventies by kickoff, but temperatures will stabilize then; the forecast effectively has 76° as the temperature for the entire game. It’ll be partly cloudy most of the day, with steady sun in the first half.
Odds
Per our friends at DraftKings K-State is a 1.5-point favorite with a 52.5 over. That means the oddsmakers are looking at a 27-25 win for the Cats. Money line is -120 for K-State, +100 for the Sun Devils.
Television
ESPN2 with Jay Alter, Tom Luginbill and Lauren Sisler.
Radio
As always, Wyatt Thompson, Stan Weber, and Matt Walters will be on hand on the K-State Sports Network as well as via satellite on SiriusXM 269.
Internet Streaming
The game will stream on ESPN+ (some form of actual ESPN subscription required). Audio available via kstatesports.com. Live stats provided by StatBroadcast.
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