Why isn’t Arizona vs. Kansas State a Big 12 conference game? Explaining NCAA football’s realignment impact

Two Big 12 football teams meet on Friday night when the Arizona Wildcats host the Kansas State Wildcats.

Only the winner gets to keep being called the Wildcats (we jest).

But there is a wild quirk to this one, beyond the matching nicknames.

Yes, it’s two Big 12 teams. But it won’t count in the conference standings. This will go down as a non-conference games between two teams from the same conference.

Confused? We’ll explain.

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Why isn’t Arizona vs. Kansas State a Big 12 conference game?

Arizona vs. Kansas State was not a game scheduled by the Big 12 Conference this season.

The pair of Wildcats had already had this game on their calendars for Sept. 12, 2025 before they were a part of the same league.

That’s because, until recently, Arizona played in the PAC-12.

This was just going to be a Power 5 game between two teams looking to get a good test before their conference schedules began.

Now, it’s a Power 4 game between two teams looking to get a good test before they begin play in the same conference.

When did Arizona join the Big 12?

Arizona’s first official school year in the Big 12 was the 2024-25 season.

This is their second fall playing football in the Big 12.

They were officially admitted to the league in August of 2023 after the PAC-12 fell apart.

Kansas State, on the other hand, has been in the league since its founding in 1996.

Could Arizona and Kansas State also play in the Big 12 season?

As it turns out, the earliest these teams could meet would be the conference title game.

It seems unlikely the Big 12 would’ve put these teams on each others’ league schedules given that they already had this game on the books.

But technically, it probably could happen. Not this year, though.

This is a one-off as a non-conference game. Starting next fall, Arizona and Kansas State will play, but it’ll count in the Big 12 standings.

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