One word.....Dumb....ISU has never had any true rivals within the Big 8/12/12-2...why force one when there isn't one nor has there ever been.....
True, there needs to be some sort of impetus, but it also is as good of fit as any in the conference.
It makes sense to me. With Farmageddon and a long history of playing each other why not?
Current Big 12 rivalries
Missouri-Kansas
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State
Oklahoma-Texas
Texas-Texas A&M
If you and K-State grow into a large rivalry game the only schools without a large marketable rivalry are Tech and Baylor and I think they have played in Dallas the last few years for football?
Actually football scheduling in particular works out well if each school has a neutral site rivalry game.
Border War - Missouri vs. Kansas in KC
Farmageddon - Iowa State vs. Kansas State in KC
Red River - Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas
Unnamed - Baylor vs. Tech in Dallas
and maybe Okie State vs. A&M somewhere.
In some countries they arrange marriages too.
K-State's rival is Kansas
For them it is, but not for Kansas, whos rival is Mizzou, and that is a much bigger rivalry.
While a rivalry between us and KSU would be a good thing, the scheduling is as much because during the time of year we'd typically have the existing long-term conference rivalries with history of being played at the end of the fb season:
Missouri-Kansas
Oklahoma-Oklahoma State
Texas-Texas A&M
That leaves 4 teams out to be scheduled that week: Baylor, Texas Tech, KSU, and ISU. It makes sense to pair the 2 northern and southern teams together for that week, which has been done with both pairs.
look at bball and fball scheduling. they are scheduling the games on the same day as Bedlam (OU vs. OSU), Border War (KU vs. MU). Not much of a rivarly exists today.