[3] Kansas State participates in the NCAA Division I FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) and is a member of the Big 12 Conference since 1996.

[10] According to most sources, intercollegiate competition began on Thanksgiving Day 1893, when Kansas State's football team defeated St. Mary's College 18–10.

[9][10] (St. Mary's was a regional athletics powerhouse, whose recent graduates included baseball pioneers Charles Comiskey and Ted Sullivan.)

In 1928, when the "Big Six" members of the MVIAA split away from the smaller schools of the Missouri Valley, Kansas State was included in its membership.

According to longtime Wildcat radio announcer Dev Nelson, after World War II Kansas State was one of the few major schools that didn't make a significant investment in its football program, or athletics overall.

The Wildcats have traditionally not been competitive on a national scale, but in 2009 the team made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament, and it has returned three times since.

[18] Other milestones in the team's history include Earl Woods, the father of golfer Tiger Woods, becoming the first African-American baseball player in the Big Seven Conference in 1952, as well as all-time coaching wins leader Mike Clark winning the Big Eight Coach of the Year award in 1990.

The men's and women's basketball teams play their home games in Bramlage Coliseum, nicknamed the "Octagon of Doom".

When Street & Smith's Annual listed the 100 greatest college basketball programs of all time in 2005, K-State ranked 22nd.

After a lengthy period with little success during the 1990s and 2000s, Kansas State returned to winning under head coaches Frank Martin (2007–2012) and Bruce Weber (2012–present).

Kansas State's football team officially began play in 1896 with a 14–0 loss to Fort Riley on November 28, 1896.

Additionally, from 1995 to 2001 the school appeared in the AP Poll for 108 consecutive weeks—the 15th-longest streak in college football history.

Through the end of the 2015–2016 season, K-State athletes have won individual NCAA national championships 37 times.

In the summer of 2024, Travis Geopfert who had a long tenure at the Arkansas Razorbacks became the new KSU track and field/cross country director.

Immediately, Geopfert hired several assistant coaches including Tara Davis-Woodhall who won the gold medal in the women's long jump at the 2024 Paris Olympics with a leap of 7.10 metres (23-3.50).

[21][22][23] Former coach Ward Haylett, who is enshrined in the National Track & Field Hall of Fame, left a strong imprint on the Kansas State program.

The current head coach is Jason Mansfielf, hired in January 2023, replacing Susie Fritz.

Fritz had led the Wildcats to several NCAA tournament appearances and the school's first conference title in volleyball in 2003.

As of the close of the 2008 season, Fritz also holds the second-highest winning percentage among all K-State's volleyball coaches after compiling a record of 148–70 (.679).

The rivalry continued strong through the 1980s, but faded as Kansas began a 24-game win streak against the Wildcats in Manhattan in 1984.

In 1991 Head Coach Bill Snyder gained his first win against the Jayhawks and over the next 12 years Kansas would only beat the Wildcats once, in 1992, until KU finally won again in a home game in 2004.

The rivalry intensified again in the 2000s as Kansas returned to relevance under Mark Mangino and the Wildcats struggled under Ron Prince.

Both teams were ranked in the AVCA Top 25 almost weekly during the Big 12 era, and Kansas State home games against Nebraska were promoted with T-shirts that read "Keep The Red Out."

In July 2017, Kansas State football player Scott Frantz announced to ESPN that he is gay.

In 1949, African American Harold Robinson played football for Kansas State with an athletic scholarship.

An indicator of the controversial nature of this position is reflected in an article published in The Tulsa World about an incident that occurred in the early 1950s during a baseball game:[30] Former teammate Larry Hartshorn recalled an instance when the Wildcats were scheduled to play a spring game against a team from Mississippi.

Kansas State, along with Virginia Tech and UCF,[A] is one of only three Power Five conference schools that have never won a team national championship in an NCAA sanctioned sport.