North Dakota Fighting Hawks vs. Kansas State Wildcats, 8/30/2025, 6:00pm CST

Kansas State 38 – North Dakota 35, Attendance: 51,927

Weather: Cloudy, 73; Ticket: $60 Stubhub, Face: $90, Parking: $30

“Easy Peasy” by Tree

Kansas State University is in Manhattan, or the Little Apple as they lovingly refer to it. It is about two hours west of the Kansas City Airport. We were completing the back end of a double weekend, so we had an hour’s drive from Lawrence. We went straight to the Airbnb to drop off our bags and then straight to the stadium we went. This turned out to be a stroke of genius, but more on that later. It meant that we did not get to see much of Manhattan on the front end

After the game we did hit Aggieville in search of post-game food and drink. It was a fruitless venture. While the numerous bars were entertaining, what we really wanted was a local greasy food to get our feedbag on. The search was largely unsuccessful, ending up at regional taco chain with dozens of students of varying degrees of sobriety. I don’t expect tons of restaurants to be open after 10pm, but in a college town there should be something, anything. We would have gladly settled for a Waffle House. With an early flight out the next day, I saw Manhattan only from my rear-view mirror. The Little Apple should be happy to get an incomplete on this one.

Bill Snyder Family Stadium is on the outskirts of Manhattan. The rural setting plays to K-State’s advantage when it comes to supporting tailgating. It appeared that you could pay cash for several lots near the stadium on game. However, these sites also had advanced sales so we were sure what their cash sales capacity would be. I have certainly been turned away from cash lots that have just been filled – See Texas State.

With a confirmed tailgate to attend later in the day, but without a corresponding parking spot, we were winging it as we headed to the stadium. We got guidance from a parking attendant that the Agronomy lot was available. Unfortunately, we arrived via the wrong direction and were told to turn around and reverse our path. Doing so would have made Shackleton’s Trans-Arctic Expedition look like a walk in the park. Instead, we threw ourselves at the mercy of the Wildcat fans who promptly let us cut into the very long line.

The $30 we spent parking in the Agronomy lot was worth every penny. With Ag students directing traffic and some modest painted lines and strings, car after car parked on a grassy field right across the street from the stadium. Even better, almost every car/truck was tailgating to some degree or other. It was as good a tailgating scene as you will find in college football. We set up our small tent, popped open some beers and enjoyed the scene.

After chatting with the locals for an hour or so, we packed up our gear and headed across the street to join another tailgating in one of the stadium lots. This was another friend of a friend hook up, but this time (unlike Kansas), they came through. The path to Jim and Rob goes through an old work connection of K-Staters, some of whom we had tailgated with at TCU. Their tailgate was certainly a step up from our beer and peanuts on the grass. We enjoyed good company and great food under the shadow of Snyder Stadium.

I noted that the overall atmosphere of this lot wasn’t quite as good as the Ag lot as many spaces had cars but no corresponding tailgates. One of the potential risks of a primo lot is that the high procurement cost drives away tailgaters. Suite dwellers are often the residents of such spaces. In my experience, they don’t tailgate well. Who can blame them when they are going to a fully catered luxury box (see FSU).

Snyder stadium seats about 50,000. With a video board in each corner of the stadium, no seat is going to miss much of the action. There are also two video ribbons ringing the interior. The inside of the stadium looks good with a nice brick trim. The seats are primarily bleacher seats, but we had sprung for lower-level seats at the 10-yard line that came with seatbacks. They were $60 on StubHub, about $20 less than face value. The concessions were standard, but the souvenir cup was an attractive one-color design. Beer is sold in the stadium, but from what we could tell it is restricted to certain parts of the stadium. Overall, we liked the look and feel of Snyder Stadium.

The Wildcats have a few traditions, such a “K S U Wildcats” cheer, and a “Shake the Claw” for another first down. The team entrance to “Crazy Train” was strong. They also did a lot of on the field bits with students. Perhaps a little too many for Power 5 school. However, the Wabash Cannonball dance was very entertaining to watch with a very high degree of fan participation.

The stadium was impressively packed for an FCS team. The attire is Midwest – lots of jeans and cowboy boots. The band had alumni playing with them and they sounded good. They even had alumni flag corps in attendance which drew several comments from some of the more recent KSU alumni sitting behind us. My favorite being “She’s a bit up in the years, but it does look like she knows how to work a stick.”

I have a general rule of not going to cupcake games for Power Five teams, e.g. an FCS team like North Dakota visiting a big FBS team like Kansas. Occasionally, the cupcake will give the host a good game and on very rare occasions, will beat them. We nearly saw such an upset at K-State.

It did not look like it at first. On their first touchdown of the game, the Wildcat receiver was open by a mile. The North Dakota DB wasn’t catching him with a jet pack. We thought we’d be done by halftime, by North Dakota was not having any of it. They just kept hanging around. At half time it was 21 -17 North Dakota…but it should have been much worse with four ND dropped interceptions, including one in the end zone.

Not sure what Kansas State head coach, Chris Klieman said to the Wildcats, but they were sufficiently motivated after the half, scoring 14 straight points in the third quarter to regain the lead by 10. The plucky Hawks still had fight in them and returned the favor by scoring the next 14 points. It gave them a 35 – 31 lead with a little over four minutes to play.

As the game wound down, it was clear that ND was tiring. They held K-State but then had their own three and out. It became apparent that if KSU got that ball back late, they were going to be able to drive and score. That is exactly what happened. With two minutes and change left in the game, K-State, ripped off an 81-yard touchdown drive in about a minute. North Dakota went backwards in their final drive and K-State went into victory formation with five seconds left. The Wildcat faithful let out a huge sigh of relief while the ND fans were left shaking their heads at what could have been.

After the game, we were pointed to Aggieland as the place to go for post-game celebrations. While there were plenty of bars, my buddy Doug and I were really in search of something to eat. We had just parked (which was neither easy nor cheap) and the rain came rolling in. It put the food trucks out of play, and we wandered from closed kitchen bar to closed kitchen bar in an unsuccessful attempt to get our grub on. We ended up at a second rate, regional Mexican fast-food joint, in a long line of college students in various states of inebriation. That Manhattan doesn’t have one late night greasy spoon to meet such expectations is a serious limitation.

Our journey did expose us to more citizens of the Little Apple, all of whom we found to be friendly and easy to talk to. However, the most interesting people we met were a couple of North Dakotan’s. It was like running into two girls from Bear Lake near Fargo -“Yea, Go Bears”

We found that we really liked Kansas State. The tailgating is superb; the stadium is well designed and there are enough traditions to put it in the upper echelon of game day experiences. I give them the same recommendation as Kansas, they are “must see” with an asterisk. The program is not a blue blood so they can have some bad years. Sure, ours was a very entertaining game to watch but, really, almost losing to a “cupcake”?!? Certainly, if your team is playing in Manhattan, pack up the car and get your crew there. But be early, the Ag Lot fills up quickly.