Kansas State knew its bowl destination had been ensured the moment Ty Zentner’s overtime field goal split the uprights: the 89th Allstate Sugar Bowl.
What wasn’t certain was the opponent, as a potential downgrade of TCU from “playoff participant” to “kicked down to the Alamo Bowl” would have directly impacted the Sugar Bowl’s SEC pick.
But the playoff committee put the proper value on TCU’s lone loss, and kept them in the field as the #3 seed, thus freeing the Sugar Bowl to select the #5 Alabama Crimson Tide (10-2, 6-2 SEC) as #9 K-State’s opponent.
On paper, this game and the Orange Bowl (#6 Tennessee vs #7 Clemson) figure to be the best of the non-playoff bowl games based on final rankings.