Not that Kansas State backed into its Big 12 co-championship in 2013 or anything, exactly. But when the Wildcats left Stillwater after a loss to Oklahoma State in their final regular-season game, they also left behind the conference championship trophy that had been reduced to a taunting symbol of futility that never even was removed from its crate.
Amid Kansas’ run of 14 straight conferences titles, after all, no one expected the fourth-ranked Jayhawks (who had entered that day tied with K-State atop the league standings) to lose to Baylor later that day.
Suddenly, K-State had to scramble to get the trophy to Manhattan, calling Oklahoma State officials and ultimately arranging to have a K-State donor who’d stayed behind drive it up.