As a follower of the Kansas City sports scene for around 40 years now, it seems like the stars are aligning in 2024 for all the local sports teams. It is almost like we are living in an alternate universe or bizarro world. The Kansas City Chiefs are favored to win their third straight Super Bowl, which would make them the only NFL team in history to do so, the Kansas City Royals are in playoff contention, Kansas football is supposed to be good, as is Missouri football, and K-State football is favored to win the Big 12. Over the last 40 years, I have seen many ups and downs for each of them, but there have been more downs than ups. All have seen their share of losing over the years, and all five are rarely good at the same time. For the first time, K-State, Missouri, and Kansas are ranked in the preseason top 25 poll. This fall has the potential to be the best season of local football in history.

I am still wrapping my mind around the fact that K-State is one of the favorites to win the Big 12. Normally, a program like K-State that is breaking in a new quarterback wouldn’t have a great shot at a championship, but the new Big 12 provides the opportunity for it to happen. There is no Oklahoma or Texas, four new schools are entering from the Pac-12, and Cincinnati, UCF, BYU, and Houston are playing their second season in the league after all of them struggled in their first season. All of this star aligning makes it seem like K-State winning the league is not only a possibility but maybe even a probability.

K-State has plenty of returners from a defense that finished second in the league in total defense in 2023, and the offense should be dynamic as well, with Avery Johnson, DJ Giddens, Dylan Edwards, and a solid wide receiving corp. It is difficult to tell where these units might rank against the 15 other schools, but K-State has as good of a shot as any top contenders to play in Arlington in December.

If you have followed sports for any length of time, you have heard the adage “defense wins championships.” That has not always been the case in the Big 12, but the team ranking near the top of the league in total defense has won it most seasons. I did a snapshot of the Big 12 football champion the last ten years, and found that the league champ has had a top three team defense in seven of the ten years. There are a few exceptions. Baylor and TCU tied for the Big 12 title in 2014, and Baylor had the 8th-ranked defense that year. TCU’s defense was ranked third. The only other times the champion was not ranked in the top three in defense was Oklahoma in 2019 (6th), Oklahoma in 2018 (10th), and Oklahoma in 2017 (6th). What did those Oklahoma teams and the 2014 Baylor team have in common? They all ranked first in the league in team offense. Having a great offense compensated for their defense not being as strong.

Don’t get me wrong. Offense is also important to win the Big 12. Interestingly, the 2022 Big 12 champion K-State Wildcats are the only league champion in those ten years to not rank in the top three offenses in the league. That Wildcat offense ranked 6th in the Big 12.

Last season, K-State’s offense and defense both ranked 2nd in the league. With the returning players they have, I think it is within the realm of possibility that they will find as much success in 2024. But I’m sure Utah, Arizona, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Iowa State, and West Virginia might have something to say about that. Looking at the team offense and defense rankings week to week will help me analyze how K-State is doing related to the other teams in the league. Since there is no round-robin anymore, this is one of the ways to compare teams against other teams that they don’t play. The number one way to determine success is still wins and losses, but the offense and defense statistics will help tell some of the story.