Greetings from 'other' Manhattan,
No. The answer, Cat fans, is...no, playing the University of Arkansas in the bloody Cotton Bowl (which has the evening all to itself) only enhances your reputation. I mean honestly, the childishness on this board..even for the internet...sorry, (I don't want to fight Kansas State peoples! I went through the reg process and "assembled the image..." - mine was a house) I'm not from Arkansas, I'm not going to tell you where I'm from, but it isn't Arkansas, or New York and, certainly isn't Lawrence, KS either. Many other posters, most of them Akransas fans it would seem, have pointed out the several material respects in which the the Razorbacks (as they are presently composed) are superior to your Wildcats - (ibid). I was living in 'other Manhattan' last year when the KSU crew were very cruelly denied a rightful victory in the Pinstripe Bowl - you guys remember. Point is, the Razorbacks were in the Sugar Bowl, in the BCS, and while they ended up playing a lousy first half, folowed by a typically frantic, impressive, comeback during which they blocked a punt, right? and then Mallet wound up being picked, I beleieve. They lost anyway. Ohio State were honeycombed by corruption and graft. The game was memorable for little else. When one compares the Texas A&M games, one recalls that your dudes nearly gave it away and that Mike Sherman's frightful, jelly-legged bungling, a boot PI call in the endzone rather gifted that game to you. The Razorbacks took their win from the Aggies, just snatched it and ate of it, supped of it. Certainly the missed figgie against Vandy was most fortuitous for them, but Vandy are a decent team, little Rodgers is a gamer and they play smart those commiedoors. Now, how did I see the ARK - Vandy game? Because in New York, new york gets all the finest entertainments and the MSG network which broadcasts the Knicks, Rangers etc. also broadcasts one SEC game each week.(occassional big 12 games on deeper fox sports affiliate - your shaky win against ISU being one) Time Warner Cable pay a little bit more for the rights each year, each term, and are happy to do it, because the SEC is the premier conference, the game, the sport of college football at its finest. This circumstance is temporary, but it is a certaintity - dig and be cognisant...hold in that rage...the SEC is what you might call 'a going concern,' while the Big 12{-4 (+TCU)} is in a state of transition..shall we say. We shall, because we are being politic. Recruiting prospects suffer since young men are less willing to sit on the sidelines, take the redshirt, at KSU (Baylor et al.) because the conference is in a state of flux, and Texas isn't Texas exactly, and we see that Oklahoma are always one injury away from being undermanned...you get it. I mean Texas scored exactly 5 points against Missouri, my god. And yes, teams in the NCAA can improve very quickly, and devolve just as quickly, so weeks are occassionaly months - legal idiom? Boring myself now...NOW HEAR THIS WITH YOUR EYES: If you beat these Razorbacks you should consider yourselves lucky. If you don't see the value you in it that is on you. It has been a long time, most of a decade, since KSU football did much of anything, not since Sproles and Freeman (q. morgan? drafted by then?) furiously slapped'd'd the Sooners in the now defunct B12 Championship Game '03, was it? So, I should think a little gratitude and good cheer is in order. Or is that not your thing? You definitely restablished yourselves this year. However, this mincing about " national recognizability " surveys etc is transparent and petty. Never quote that survey in public ever again - seriously guys, I want to respect you.
love, love, love,
a fellow human