Chris Klieman has mixed feelings on another late-night game for Kansas State football

For years, passionate college football fans have grown accustomed to staying up late on Saturday nights and watching games involving West Coast teams like San Diego State, Stanford, UCLA, Washington and sometimes Hawaii.

A new team has joined the late-night rotation this season: Kansas State.

Even though the Wildcats and their campus are located about 1,500 miles away from the Pacific Ocean, they are about to play in their second conference game of the year with a kickoff time later than 9 p.m. for fans watching from home in the Central time zone.

K-State is quickly becoming a popular pick for “Big 12 After Dark” thanks the conference realignment.

ESPN selected K-State at Colorado for its 9:15 p.m. window on October 12. The battle of winning Big 12 teams will be televised nationally in a prime-time slot for football fans in the West. But some fans will be asleep before kickoff in other regions.

This is nothing new for the Wildcats, as they suffered a 38-9 loss at BYU two weeks ago in a game that didn’t start until 9:30 p.m.

Chris Klieman shared his thoughts on playing another late game during his weekly news conference on Monday.

“It’s going to be a long Sunday, that’s for sure,” Klieman said. “We knew when we (the Big 12) brought all the schools in from the West Coast (Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Colorado, Utah) that this was going to be a part of what you’re going to see. And I take it a couple ways. One, that’s a challenge, especially because we go on the road the next week, too. But the second thing is, we’re playing on the best networks and we’re playing on the prime spot and we’re a (popular) game.”

A viewing audience of 1.5 million watched K-State face BYU earlier this month.

K-State at Colorado could easily attract a bigger audience. The Wildcats (4-1, 1-1 Big 12) are ranked 20th in the polls after they clobbered Oklahoma State over the weekend. The Buffaloes (4-1, 2-0 Big 12) are also riding high after an impressive victory at UCF.

The winner of this game will be well-positioned to compete for a Big 12 championship.

If that weren’t enough, college football fans also like to watch Colorado head coach Deion Sanders.

Playing late certainly presents some challenges. K-State coaches and players returned home to Manhattan at 5 a.m. on Sunday morning following their game against the Cougars and had to catch up on sleep throughout the week. But late games also create exposure.

“It’s fun when networks are picking you because you’re in one of the better games and then you have got to figure out what time you go on,” Klieman said. “But I think it’s a credit to how well Colorado is playing and I think it’s a credit to our big win over Oklahoma State.”

Like it or not, teams across the Big 12 must start getting used to late kickoffs.

But Klieman does have one request moving forward. He says the Wildcats would appreciate an afternoon kickoff when they hit the road for an away game against West Virginia on Oct. 19.

“That’s something, I think, as coaches we need to at least express,” Klieman said. “It’s still about the well-being of the student athlete.”