MANHATTAN, Kansas (FoxKansas.com) -- The K-State Wildcats are Texas-bound in January 2012.
The team, which ended its regular season with a 10-2 record, will take on Arkansas when the teams meet Jan. 6 in the Cotton Bowl for a primetime game that will be televised live on the FOX network. Both teams finished in the top 10 of the BCS rankings but neither was able to secure a BCS bowl berth.
K-State, ranked No. 8, hasn't made an appearance in the Cotton Bowl since 2001, when they played and defeated Tennessee with a 35-21 score. The Razorbacks' last appearance in the Cotton Bowl was in 2008 when it lost 38-7 to Missouri.
“We truly feel like we ended up with one of the top bowl matchups in the country,” Tommy Bain, Chairman of the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic said, in a statement posted on the bowl's Website. “This is the first Top-10 matchup at the Classic since 1994 and one of only four bowls this year pitting two Top-10 teams."
The Jan. 6 meeting will mark the first time the two teams have played each other since 1967.
The Cotton Bowl will take place in the brand new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The venue will be packed.
Bowl officials have announced that tickets are sold out, a development that officials said marks the quickest sellout in the history of the bowl game.
FoxKansas.com Staff Writer Alfred Charles contributed to this report. He can be reached at acharles@nptvgroup.com.
