K-State Q&A: Facility plans, lame Big 12/SEC basketball matchups, football and more
One of the most popular questions I get from Kansas State fans revolves around facilities.
It makes sense. In the past decade, we have seen the Wildcats complete major upgrades at Bill Snyder Family Stadium, construct a new basketball training facility, build a soccer stadium from scratch and plan for even more. So what’s next? Unfortunately, no one asked me that particular question this week. But I have some information to share on the topic, so I’m going to pass it along here at the top of everyone’s favorite mailbag.
A month ago, K-State athletic director Gene Taylor told me fundraising has been going well for the Wildcats. So well, that he expected to break ground on either a new volleyball arena or a new Olympic training facility within the next year. The only potential delay, he said, would be acquiring steel and other essential construction materials. Apparently, the pandemic has made those things hard to come by.
After talking to a few more people in the know, I can tell you that K-State won’t be stopping with just one project in the near future. The athletic department is confident it will be able to get started on both of the facilities mentioned above, plus a new indoor practice facility for football, within the next three years.
For now, I’m told they will likely focus on the volleyball arena first, followed by the Olympic training facility and then the football complex.
Fans will obviously care most about the practice facility for football, because it is tied to a revenue sport they care deeply about but also because it will impact gameday parking.
The new practice building is planned for the east side of Snyder Family Stadium, which will eliminate parking spots for some season-ticket holders on that side of the stadium. Those who park in that area aren’t happy about losing their spots, but I’m told K-State officials are working to expand parking so no one will be totally displaced.
Some of the grassy areas surrounding the parking lot can easily be transformed into extra parking. The athletic department can also rent parking from the adjacent recreational center and let fans park their cars at that location. Some will have to walk a little farther to get into the stadium, but K-State’s overall parking capacity should remain about the same.
That seems like a fair compromise to me, and a better idea than building the practice facility across the street as some have suggested.
And with that, it’s time for another K-State Q&A. Let’s dive into your questions. Thanks, as always, for providing them.
This question is in response to the Big 12/SEC Challenge men’s basketball pairings that were announced earlier this week.
It truly is hard to believe we are nine years into this crossover episode without a single K-State/Kentucky matchup.
Maybe the networks are afraid about having the Wildcats play the Wildcats. Or maybe Kentucky is still bitter about losing to K-State in the Sweet 16 back in 2018.
All kidding aside, K-State does keep getting some very “meh” matchups in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The SEC has 14 teams, yet the Wildcats have only played five of them in this series — Mississippi (twice), Texas A&M (twice), Tennessee (twice), Georgia and Alabama. They will play Ole Miss again next season. Making these games even more dull, they come on top of home-and-home series that K-State scheduled with Texas A&M and Georgia.
The Wildcats play the Aggies so often, it feels like they are still in the same conference.
What do we have to do to get K-State vs. South Carolina or LSU or Auburn or Arkansas or Florida or Kentucky?
The easy answer is: K-State needs to improve. If the Wildcats were a preseason favorite in the Big 12, they could draw Arkansas or Florida in this series. But when they are at or near the bottom of the preseason poll like they have been the last two years, they’re stuck with Ole Miss and A&M all the time.
I like the Big 12’s conference challenges with both the SEC and the Big East. They create better games than we would otherwise see during nonconference play, and the top of next year’s Big 12/SEC slate looks legitimately great. Sign me up for Kansas/Kentucky and Texas/Tennessee and Baylor/Alabama and West Virginia/Arkansas. Those games all look amazing.
But the repeat matchups are getting a bit old on the other end of the spectrum.
K-State has to play Marquette in the Big 12/Big East series next season. And we’ve already seen that game two times in the last three years. It’s too bad K-State/Butler got canceled last season. It would be great if they could find a way to mix things up.
It’s hard to argue against Phil Steele.
Athlon Sports thought virtually the same thing about Deuce Vaughn and Phillip Brooks. That preseason magazine slotted Vaughn as an all-purpose All-American on its second team and placed Brooks as a punt returner on its third team.
Vaughn is the perfect candidate for an all-purpose player. He makes a lot of noise out of the back field as a running back, but he also makes people miss as a receiver. He might even be featured more in the return game this season, who knows?
I think Pro Football Focus has gone a tad overboard with its praise of Vaughn as purely a running back. Personally, I think it’s crazy to rank him ahead of Breece Hall and Bijan Robinson. But those running backs can’t match Vaughn’s overall versatility. All-purpose honors seem perfect for Vaughn.
Brooks also deserves preseason love after the numbers he put up last season. But I do wonder if we all might be reading too much into the huge game he had against Kansas, when the Jayhawks essentially dropped to the turf and took naps as he returned a pair of punts for touchdowns and nearly made another house call. Take that game away, and his resume doesn’t look nearly as shiny.
But there’s no doubt he is an electric return man. He averaged 22.7 yards per punt return in 2019 and then 18.8 last season. I don’t know who else you would rank ahead of him. You can never go wrong with K-State special teams.
I don’t see any other All-America candidates on the Wildcats’ roster.
You know what, guys, I don’t know all the answers on this subject yet.
Everything I have read suggests that schools are now allowed to provide extra benefits to their student-athletes such as free laptops, musical instruments and paid post-graduate internships. But I really have no idea where that ends.
I kind of doubt schools will be running out to buy expensive cars for their student-athletes, but I suppose each team could have the equivalent of company cars to loan out. If that’s on the table then it’s only a matter of time before someone tries to push that boundary.
Making things even more difficult to understand is the looming Name, Image and Likeness change that is coming on July 1. Some states have laws set up to govern how student-athletes can begin profiting off of endorsement deals and some states (like Kansas) are still stuck in the stone age.
But news came out Wednesday night that the NCAA may not enforce its rules that prohibit student-athletes from making money while in school until the organization creates its own blanket plan that will govern all athletes.
I sincerely don’t know what to make of it all.
One way or another, it seems like things will be very different in July than they are now.
How will that impact K-State? Maybe I’m just being naive, but I don’t think it will be a huge deal. The Wildcats have always found a way to keep up with the proverbial Joneses whenever the NCAA has allowed them to provide extra benefits for their student-athletes, and I’m not expecting this to be any different.
K-State had a training table, which is a fancy name for a cafeteria, ready to go when the NCAA granted schools permission to provide unlimited meals to student-athletes. K-State is always finding ways to raise money and build new facilities and all that fun stuff.
I’m sure there are plenty of businesses around the area that would like to sign K-State athletes to endorsement deals. That’s no different than any other college town, where sports are important.
Bottom line: no one really knows what to expect. I guess we’ll have to buckle up and find out.
I still have all my favorite old baseball and football cards.
Back in the 90s, I used to frequent card shows on the weekend and spent WAY too much money on the hobby with my brother and father. Bless my mother for tolerating us.
My favorite card was probably a special Warren Moon card that I found from Action Packed. For those who weren’t collecting football cards 30 years ago, that company made some really cool (lame, actually) cards that pushed a player’s outline up off the paper. It made you want to touch the card and feel a player’s helmet. Anyway, some of their cards were made with 24 karat gold, and my Warren Moon card was one of them.
At one point, the card was worth well over $100. I thought it was going to make me rich. It is now worthless, sitting in the closet of my guest room. But I still have it!
It really is sad how many cards that were once deemed rare and expensive now have no value.
I also got super into the home-run craze of the 90s, when Mark McGwire broke the old record with 70. His cards were red hot at the time, and I was over the moon when I found his rookie card from the 1985 Topps set. That bad boy was the hottest card in the world back then. Now, I wonder if I could sell it for $5.
Oh well. At least they look good standing up on the book shelf in my home office.
The real question is: Who would play the handsome reporter who grilled him after every game during his second stint as K-State’s football coach?
Jason Statham feels right.
I’m a little more muscular than him. He would also need to drop his British accent. But it’s a perfect match, otherwise.
For Snyder, how about George Clooney? He’s 61 years old now, which would put him at just about the perfect age to play Snyder during both his early and late seasons with the Wildcats.
He would need to lose a little hair, shave his beard and drop a few pounds, but he would look almost as amazing as Snyder in a windbreaker and some Nike Cortez shoes.
This story was originally published June 25, 2021 at 11:47 AM.