Saturday, August 31, 1996

After years in the planning stage, the Big 12 finally begins play

By Associated Press

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) - They're finally going to stop talking about Big 12 football long enough to play a game.

For 2-1/2 years, they've discussed, planned, examined, analyzed and scrutinized the Big 12.
Presidents, putting enormous pressure on coaches, bragged about it being the best conference. Coaches, destined to be overruled by dollar-conscious presidents, argued against a conference football playoff.

Since the conference was officially formed in February 1994, they've haggled over everything from academic standards to volleyball schedules, to where to put the conference office and who should run it.

Until now, about the only thing they hadn't done was play a football game.
Finally, Texas Tech and No. 21 Kansas State get the honor of being No. 1. If not in the standings, at least on the clock.

The Wildcats and Red Raiders kick off at 2 p.m. today in the first Big 12 game, beating Texas-Missouri by about 5 hours.

Kansas State, coming off a 10-2 season and second-place finish in the final year of the Big Eight, is a 7-point favorite over a Red Raiders team revitalized under coach Spike Dykes. In the final five years of the Southwest Conference, Texas Tech finished no lower than second.

"What a way to start," Dykes said. "We've got to go to Manhattan. That team doesn't make any mistakes. All they do, they do well. But it's fun to play somebody else after going against yourself all spring and fall."

The significance of the occasion is not lost on the players.

"We're proud to be playing in the first Big 12 game," said Kevin Lockett, who could become Kansas State's all-time leading pass receiver. "We're looking at this as a reward for all the hard work we've put in and the progress we've made."

The first Big 12 game will showcase some of the conference's best players, including K-State cornerback Chris Canty and Texas Tech running back Byron Hanspard.

Hanspard rushed for 1,374 yards and 11 touchdowns last year and caught 35 passes for 474 yards and seven TDs.

Playing a tough conference opponent in the season opener is a dramatic change for Kansas State, which during Bill Snyder's regime has carefully stair-stepped its way into the conference season beginning with what amounted to tuneup games.

"It's been a busy time. We're still trying to tie things together," Snyder said. "In the past, we always had two weeks from the end of two-a-days to our first opponent, time to let them absorb things. This is different, and it's a little more difficult.

"In 101 years of football, this program has never opened with a conference opponent."

Dykes, acknowledged as the sharpest wit in the SWC, should have little difficulty seizing the title in this bigger, showier conference. He noted that the Big 12 had first planned for more highly rated Texas A&M to play in the first game.

"Kansas State wouldn't see to that, is the way I understand it," he said. "Then when they talked about Tech, they said, 'Well, yeah. We'll go for that.' "

Said Snyder, "We're leaping a mountain at the very beginning."