As bowl season has arrived in the college football world, two teams have decided to skip playing in one. On Sunday morning, the Iowa State Cyclones and Kansas State Wildcats announced that they will be skipping a bowl game.
But Big 12 Conference officials didn’t like what they heard and decided to hand down a big penalty on both teams.
What Did Big 12 Do To Iowa State, Kansas State?
After this news broke, the Big 12 slapped Iowa State and Kansas State with $500,000 penalties. On3 college football reporter Brett McMurphy posted on X what the conference did in response to the schools’ decision.
Iowa State & Kansas State each fined $500,000 by Big 12 since the two bowl-eligible teams declined to accept bowl bids
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 7, 2025
The Big 12 also issued a statement about the penalties on Sunday morning, too. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal sportswriter Don Williams posted on X what the conference said.
“While the Conference acknowledges the difficult timing around coaching changes, the Big 12 is responsible for fulfilling its contractual obligations to its bowl partners,” according to the Big 12’s statement. “The Big 12 considers the matter resolved and will have no further comment.”
Iowa State finished the regular season with an 8-4 record. The Cyclones will also be losing head coach Matt Campbell, who will be headed to Happy Valley and take over as Penn State’s head football coach. Iowa State also finished 5-4 in Big 12 play.
As for Kansas State, the Wildcats finished 6-6 overall, 5-4 in conference play. Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman announced his retirement, so he will not be back next season.
With their records, both teams were definitely bowl eligible. But deciding to skip a bowl game hurts the Big 12 overall. Therefore, the conference decided that both schools needed to be held accountable for their decisions.
Neither school finished anywhere near the Associated Press’ Top 25 poll that was released on Sunday. Of course, Iowa State and Kansas State were not even included in the College Football Playoff 12 teams.
According to the PFSN CFB Offense Impact metrics, Iowa State had an impact score of 79.2 and graded out to a C+. As for Kansas State, they had an impact score of 77.0 and graded out to a C. Both those offenses were not much to write home about this season.
As these schools bow out of postseason play, it will be worth watching to see which teams will replace those schools in a bowl game. Iowa State and Kansas State will now turn their attention toward the 2026 college football season.
