MANHATTAN, Kan. – Big 12 Conference matchups in Bill Snyder Family Stadium with Texas Tech, Texas, Oklahoma State and KU, and the recently-announced season opener at Stanford, highlight the Wildcats’ complete 12-game 2016 football schedule as the Big 12 released the full conference slate today.

With six home games and two in-season bye weeks, the Wildcats will not play consecutive road games in 2016 as the Big 12’s full round-robin schedule has proven to be one of the toughest in college football.  Following the opener on September 2 at Stanford, the Wildcats will host Florida Atlantic onSeptember 17 and Missouri State on September 24 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium to close out the non-conference slate before opening conference play at West Virginia on October 1.

K-State welcomes Texas Tech to Manhattan on October 8 before traveling to Oklahoma on October 15.  The Texas Longhorns will then visit Bill Snyder Family Stadium on October 22 before the Wildcats head to Iowa State on October 29.

The month of November opens with a home contest against Oklahoma State on November 5 before the Wildcats’ second bye week of the season on November 12. The regular season concludes with a road game at Baylor on November 19, the Dillons Sunflower Showdown against KU in Manhattan onNovember 26 and a road matchup with TCU on December 3.

K-State will host four league games at Bill Snyder Family Stadium in 2016 and coupled with two home non-conference games provides a rare schedule of less than seven home games for the Wildcats. K-State is the only Big 12 Conference program to play seven or more games in its home stadium in each of the last five years, and following six home games in 2016, the Wildcats will expect to have at least seven home games annually from 2017-2021.

2016 K-State Football Schedule (all subject to change)

Sept. 2                  at Stanford
Sept. 10                BYE
Sept. 17                Florida Atlantic
Sept. 24                Missouri State
Oct. 1                    at West Virginia
Oct. 8                    Texas Tech
Oct. 15                  at Oklahoma
Oct. 22                  Texas
Oct. 29                  at Iowa State
Nov. 5                   Oklahoma State
Nov. 12                 BYE
Nov. 19                 at Baylor
Nov. 26                 KU
Dec. 3                    at TCU

The Kansas State women’s basketball team lost for the first time this season Monday night at top ranked Connecticut 97-57.

Three K-State players did reach double figures in scoring. Kaylee Page and Kindred Wesemann each scored 11 points, while Breanna Lewis added 10. UConn was led by Breanna Stewart with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Connecticut forced K-State into 12 turnovers in the first half, with 10 coming on steasls. The Huskies also shot 18 of 37 from the field in the first stanza, and held the edge in rebounding for the game 50-31.

Kansas State hosts Southern in Manhattan at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Dean Wade had 14 points and 13 rebounds in his fourth college game, and Kansas State’s zone defense forced Missouri into an atrocious shooting night in a 66-42 rout in the semifinals of the CBE Classic on Monday night.

Justin Edwards added 13 points and Wesley Iwundu had 10 for the Wildcats (4-0), who will play ninth-ranked North Carolina or Northwestern for the tournament championship Tuesday night.

Kevin Puryear led the Tigers (2-2) with nine points, but the freshman forward didn’t get much help. The Tigers shot just 31 percent from the field while getting dominated on the glass by their former Big 12 rival, who won for the fifth time in their last six meetings.

The game was mostly decided in the first 20 minutes, when Kansas State kept packing into a zone defense and the Tigers were unable to shoot their way over top of it.

The Junction City Middle School wrestlers finished second out of 11 teams at the seaman Middle School Invitational on Friday.

For Junction City:

–1st place weight class finishers included CJ Neuman, Ricky Reynolds, Albert Caba, Jalen Gill, and Jessie Newson.

–2nd place weight class finishers included Tyler Sinklier and Charlie Drake

–A 3rd place weight class finisher was Kazerick Smith

–Fourth Place weight class finishers were Blayne Danford, Zane Thornton,  and James Hancock,

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State senior kick returner Morgan Burns picked up his second-consecutive Big 12 weekly honor on Monday as he was again named the Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week following his performance in K-State’s thrilling 38-35 victory over Iowa State, the conference office announced.

It marked the second time in the last three years a Wildcat has earned a weekly conference honor in consecutive weeks (Ryan Mueller, 2013 vs. Iowa State and Texas Tech), while it was the first in the special teams category since David Allen was honored following the Iowa State and Texas games in 1999. With Burns’ honor last week and Jack Cantele’s accolade following the Louisiana Tech game, K-State now has a staggering 18 Big 12 Special Teams Player of the Week honors since 2011 (3.6 per year).

For the second-straight week, Burns returned a kickoff for a score as he went 100 yards against the Cyclones in the second quarter. It was Burns’ third return for a score in 2015, while he became the first player in school history with two 100-yard returns in a season and first in the Big 12 since Fozzy Whittaker (Texas) in 2011. Burns is the only player nationally this year with two 100-yard returns, while his three kickoff return scores rank second in both school and Big 12 history.

A product of Wichita, Kansas, Burns ranks sixth nationally this season in kickoff-return average (30.2), while he is second in school history in single-season kickoff-return yards (846) and fifth for a career (1,280). Additionally, he ranks fourth in school history in both season and career (28.4) return average.

This week’s honor comes on the heels of breaking the school record with 221 kickoff-return yards at Texas Tech, which featured a 93-yard kickoff return touchdown.

SAN DIEGO (AP) – Justin Houston intercepted Philip Rivers’ pass and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown and 346-pound defensive tackle Dontari Poe leaped over the pile for a 1-yard touchdown and the Kansas City Chiefs embarrassed the free-falling San Diego Chargers 33-3 Sunday.

Alex Smith won again at Qualcomm Stadium as the Chiefs (5-5) won their fourth straight game following a five-game losing streak.

The Chargers (2-8) lost their sixth straight.

Rivers had his worst game of the season, throwing for just 178 yards. Rivers attempted a pass to Danny Woodhead from the Chargers 23 and Houston intercepted it and ran it in for a 19-3 lead with 3:27 left in the third quarter.

Houston sacked Rivers four times in the 2014 season finale in which the Chargers were eliminated from the playoff race.

Smith, who led Helix High to consecutive city championships at Qualcomm Stadium, was 20 of 25 for 253 yards.

AMES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa State coach Paul Rhoads is out after seven seasons.

Iowa State says athletic director Jamie Pollard told Rhoads on Sunday that he’s making a change.

Rhoads went 32-54 with the Cyclones. But he won just eight games in his final three seasons as the program slipped back into mediocrity.

Rhoads led Iowa State to just its third bowl win in his first season. But Iowa State is 3-8 this season; blowing a 35-28 lead with 1:31 to go in Saturday’s loss at Kansas State.

Iowa State signed Rhoads to a 10-year, $20 million contract before the 2012 season. Rhoads is due a $4.5 million buyout under the terms of that deal.

Rhoads will coach his final game with Iowa State on Saturday at West Virginia.

Former Kansas State basketball great Rolando Blackman was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame Friday in Kansas City, Mo.

On Saturday he paid a visit to Bill Snyder Family Stadium to watch the football Wildcats, and took time to visit with the media. He said he was happy and proud. On playing in the program at K-State  run by the late Jack Hartman: “For me it’s just a continous move to show how a student-athlete can progress and to really grow here at Kansas State University. I had the chance to be here as an 18-year old all the way throughout to be 22, and I had a chance to really grow.” Blackman added he had a chance for an educational process and excellent athletics.

Blackman added, “With the people that are here that made the difference, the environment, the teachers. I’ve got my professors right here right now who are sitting with me and we’re getting a chance to talk about life, and the things that have happened so it always was greater than the game of basketball, but it’s been tremendous.

Blackman is remembered for his exploits for Wildcat basketball in the Big 8 and at Ahearn Fieldhouse. One big memory is his game-winning shot over number one seeded Oregon State in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on  1981….a shot captured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Rolando has that memory framed. “I’ve got one or two ( copies ) framed, and then I’ve got 32 others in a box.”

He noted Jack Hartman was the leader of the program, and another Wildcat player helped him during his freshman year. “And at the time I got a chance to learn a great deal. I was very lucky to be under the wing of Mike Evans, an All-American at the time, and understood exactly what to do in playing the game and executing. So it worked out. It worked out very very well, and I had the right people at the right time.”

Blackman was named Big Eight Conference Player of the Year in 1980 and an All-American.  He was a three-time unanimous All-Big Eight selection, and scored 1,844 career points, the second highest in Kansas State history. He later played for the Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks of the NBA, and then finished his playing career on teams in Europe. Today he resides in Dallas, Texas.