MANHATTAN, Kan. -- From the president's office to crowded dormitory rooms, pain and grief turned to shock and anger for Kansas State fans.
Instead of playing in a major bowl where they feel they belong, the Wildcats will be playing Purdue in the Alamo Bowl."How can we go from being one point away, one play away from playing Tennessee for the national championship to playing Purdue in the Alamo Bowl?" Kansas State president Jon Wefald said in an interview with The Associated Press.
If the Wildcats (11-1) had beaten Texas A&M in the Big 12 title game on Saturday in St. Louis, they would have moved up from third in the BCS rankings and met Tennessee in the Fiesta Bowl for the national championship.
Instead, the Wildcats lost 36-33 in double overtime. But although they remained third in the BCS and dropped no lower than fourth in the Associated Press poll, they were not one of the six teams selected for the other major BCS bowls -- the Orange, Rose or Sugar.
"The Alamo Bowl?" said Brook Howard, a Kansas State cheerleader watching the announcement Sunday night on television. "Are you kidding me? I guess they're just not ready for Kansas State to be a major college power."
And then, Kansas State was not even invited to the top second-tier bowls with ties to the Big 12 -- the Cotton or Holiday.
"We should be in a BCS bowl. I can speak for all our fans that we're heartbroken over losing to Texas A&M and extraordinarily disappointed we're not in a major bowl," Wefald said.
Kansas State players and coaches were still so upset over their loss to Texas A&M -- in which they squandered a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter -- that they canceled a scheduled Sunday news conference.
"I guess the BCS rankings only mean something for the top two teams. That's not right. That's another thing they have to change," said Wefald.