That's the scenario for the Wildcats as they prepare to face Nebraska in a winner-take-all clash in Lincoln on Saturday night. A win puts the Wildcats in the conference title game against Texas and makes them bowl-eligible. A loss ends the Wildcats' season.
A K-State win would put the Wildcats into a tie with Nebraska (7-3, 4-2) atop the Big 12 North, but gives KSU the tie-breaker over the Huskers, even if the Huskers defeat Colorado next week.
"I've never been involved in a ball game in which I can recall both the division championship or any kind of championship or a bowl game opportunity were on the line at the same time," Snyder said on Tuesday.
Such is the case though after losing at home to Missouri last Saturday as the Wildcats failed to secure that coveted seventh win needed to advance to a bowl next month.
"It's very frustrating. Missouri is a good football team, but that was our game to have. It came down to who wanted it more and Missouri apparently wanted it more," KSU center Wade Weibert said.
The Wildcats, who controlled the Big 12 North division until last week's loss, will be trying to do something that only two KSU teams have accomplished since 1968 - win in Lincoln. The last K-State team to do so was in 2003, the same season the Cats upset No. 1 Oklahoma in the conference title game and advanced to the Fiesta Bowl.
If there was ever a must-win, this is it for a K-State team that missed out on a bowl four of the past five seasons.
No pressure, right?
"It's not a matter of saying, `forget the fact that there are these rewards out there for being successful this coming Saturday.' I think a certain amount of that has to be there," Snyder said. "I'm not so naive to believe that our players are not thinking about that. And I'm not so naive to believe that I could convince them not to think about that. And I don't really want them to divorce themselves from that, but it's a matter of not letting that impact negatively the way you prepare yourself."
The long-time K-State coach is right. His players are well aware of what's at stake on Saturday. There's no hiding from that.
"Our whole season rides on this one game, but that can't scare us too much," KSU defensive end Jeff Fitzgerald said. "We know that we have to focus on our game plan at hand and prepare and execute as best as possible. We have to put our best game together on Saturday.
"You can't really block it out. You just have to use it for motivation, more incentive to get better this week. We have to be right mentally. It's going to be a tough game. I'm sure (Nebraska) wants that Big 12 North championship as bad as we do."
K-State (6-5, 4-3) hasn't handled prosperity well this season, but after losses, that's a different story. After starting the season 1-2 with a pair of road losses, the Wildcats rebounded with two straight wins against Tennessee Tech and Iowa State. Then after the crash-and-burn at Texas Tech, K-State bounced back with a decisive home win against Texas A&M. After losing at Oklahoma after seemingly outplaying the Sooners for three quarters, the Wildcats came back and knocked off Kansas.
"It goes back to the very beginning. It's being able to maintain the kind of self-discipline that it takes to remain focused on the task at hand," Snyder said. "Where are we in that respect? We were doing better, then this last week we took a nose-dive and now we're trying to get back a hold of that."
It's not an easy thing to do because of the obvious fragility of this program.
"We were in the pressurecooker after the Texas Tech game and came back and responded very well. Then this past weekend, we were in a high-pressure situation, and we didn't fare so well," Weibert said. "We've taken steps forward in handing the pressure, but we also have shown that we're still a very mentally-young team... We're trying to harness what happened during those weeks when we did perform well in pressure situations."
Senior quarterback Grant Gregory, who was part of four bowl teams at South Florida as a backup, relishes the position the Wildcats are in this weekend.
"To have a chance to win the Big 12 North, one game, winner-take-all, is an awesome scenario," he said. "I wouldn't trade this for the world."
But at the same time Gregory understands that if the Wildcats' season ends on Saturday night, so does his playing career.
"If we lose, me and a lot of other seniors are never going to play another football game as long as we live," said Gregory, who is 4-3 as the starter.
"That's pretty good motivation. If we win, we get to play two more games. If we lose -hopefully a couple guys will get to go to the NFL -- but for most of us, we're done."
The obvious benefits to winning are a berth into the Big 12 title game and a chance to not only go to a bowl, but a BCS bowl with a win over Texas. But beyond getting those two extra games, a win would also reward K-State with roughly 15 extra practices.
"Eight teams in the conference getting 15 extra days of practice and you didn't, can't help your program," Snyder said. "We've been on both ends of it."
K-State reaped those benefits from 1993-2003 when it appeared in 11 straight bowls.
It is, in a way, a chance for the rich to get richer.
"That was always important to us, a real luxury for us for so many years to get those extra 15 practices, and focused-type practices," Snyder said. "There was still a carrot out there. It meant a lot to us. When we started going to bowl games, it gave us more experience in all areas that you could assume benefited our program for the future and for the coming years."
So while Snyder acknowledges the implications surrounding Saturday's game, it's not the be-all and end-all for this K-State program, despite the obvious improvements that were made this season.
"It would be a very positive direction for everyone associated with Kansas State and the program. I don't deny that. But if we were fortunate enough to do that, it doesn't mean that everything is rosy," he said. "We still have an awfully long ways to go and a lot of things that need to take place and aren't going to happen immediately.
"It's just going to take time and this would be a great step. You might catapult yourself up the ladder a couple notches in the process, but it doesn't complete the foundation."
