My Process Kicking Off
First thing I did was just jump online. Fired up my computer and started searching. Nothing fancy, just typed stuff like "K-State football bowl projections 2023" or "Big 12 bowl tie-ins" into the search bar. You know, the usual stuff.
Man, you get a lot of hits. Tons of sports websites, blogs, even random forum posts popped up. Some sites I recognized, like ESPN or CBS Sports, others were more niche fan blogs. It was kinda overwhelming at first.
Sorting Through the Noise
So, I started clicking around. I spent a good chunk of time just reading through different articles and predictions. What I noticed pretty quickly was that everyone had a slightly different idea. One site would have us in the Liberty Bowl, another would say the Texas Bowl, and some even higher profile ones occasionally.
I tried to pay attention to why they were projecting certain bowls. They usually mentioned things like:
- Our current record and projected final record.
- Where we stood in the Big 12 standings.
- Who our potential opponents might be from other conferences.
- Sometimes they even talked about location or potential fan travel interest.
It became clear that it wasn't just about the best record getting the best bowl, especially after the top New Year's Six games. There's a whole pecking order with the conference tie-ins.
Trying to Find Some Consensus
After reading maybe half a dozen different projections, I started seeing some patterns. Certain bowls kept coming up more often than others for K-State. I kinda mentally noted those down, or sometimes I'd jot them on a scrap piece of paper next to my keyboard.
I tended to lean towards the projections from the bigger, more established sports news outlets. Not always, but they often explain their reasoning a bit more, even if it changes week to week based on who wins and loses.
I specifically looked for updates too. Stuff posted yesterday is probably more relevant than something from three weeks ago, especially with how college football seasons go up and down.
What I Ended Up With
So, after all that digging, I didn't find one single definitive answer. That's kind of the point of projections, I guess. They're just educated guesses. But I did get a much better feel for the likely range of bowls K-State could land in.
I basically ended up with a short list of 2-3 bowls that seemed like the most common predictions across the different sources I trusted more. It wasn't scientific, just me trying to piece together the common threads from what everyone was saying.
It was an interesting little exercise. Now, just gotta wait and see how the rest of the games play out and where the Wildcats actually end up! It's always fun seeing if any of these guesses turn out right.
