Gene Taylor outlines Kansas State’s plan to compete with top spenders in Big 12
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- K‑State expects to spend close to $19 million on its football roster next season.
- K‑State expects to spend roughly $6 million on its men’s basketball roster next season.
- Taylor talked extensively about K‑State’s stance on above‑the‑cap NIL and revenue sharing.
The end of an academic year is often a good time for Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor to reflect fondly on everything the Wildcats have recently accomplished.
During his nine years in Manhattan, Taylor has overseen some memorable highs, such as six bowl trips and a Big 12 championship in football. The K-State men’s basketball team has reached a pair of Elite Eights and won a conference crown. Baseball and women’s hoops have also experienced postseason success under his watch.
But things are different this spring. Now is not the time to reminisce.
Quite the opposite.
K-State went 6-6 in football and declined a bowl invitation after Chris Klieman retired. The Wildcats lost 20 games in men’s basketball and fired Jerome Tang. The women’s basketball team missed the NCAA Tournament. The baseball team is trending toward no postseason. This has been a year to forget for K-State fans.
With that in mind, Taylor is looking to the future with new head coaches in charge of football (Collin Klein) and men’s basketball (Casey Alexander). His primary focus, at the moment, is supporting them in a new era of college sports that features skyrocketing roster costs.
“I think we have the coaching staffs to compete consistently for Big 12 championships and postseason play,” Taylor said in an exclusive interview. “But we need to push the envelope.”
Specifically, Taylor says K-State needs to continue raising money for its student-athletes.
At the beginning of his tenure, most of Taylor’s fundraising efforts were focused on facility enhancements. Now, things have shifted almost entirely to revenue sharing and NIL money for players.
Taylor says the Wildcats expect to spend around $6 million on their men’s basketball roster next season and close to $19 million on their football roster. Those figures include direct payments to players from the athletic department’s revenue-sharing budget (approximately $21.3 million across all sports), in addition to “above the cap” NIL fundraising.
Those numbers will lag behind the biggest spenders. Men’s basketball rosters are reportedly approaching $20 million at some schools. Big 12 rivals Arizona, BYU and Kansas all spend aggressively in hoops. Texas Tech reportedly spent nearly $30 million on its football payroll last season. Some are projecting $40 million or even $50 million football rosters in the near future.
Still, Taylor thinks K-State has enough resources to win.
The Wildcats have never ranked at the top of the Big 12 in budget or spending before. But they found ways to compete. The plan is to do the same now that money is going to players.
“Are we going to have a $40 million football roster anytime soon? No, but we can go higher than what we are now,” Taylor said. “We will continue to work hard on that. But we also have coaches who understand that they don’t need to pay $7 million for a player. That’s what gives me confidence that we will give them resources, and they will win within the resources we give them.
“We’ll continue to push those resources so they can have more negotiating power. But they’re not going to overspend. They’re not going to go crazy. They’re going to go find the right athletes that are going to win here for us. I truly believe that.”
The men’s basketball and football programs have both hired new general managers to help with their budgets.
Alexander had enough resources to rebuild the K-State men’s basketball roster quickly. The Wildcats have lined up 10 incoming transfers to go along with two high school recruits and returning player Andrej Kostic. The group lacks star power, but Alexander has high hopes for them. He said he had more than enough money to recruit but admitted he was “on a budget.”
Klein also hit the transfer portal hard and assembled a football roster that he has confidence in as he prepares for Year 1 at Bill Snyder Family Stadium.
“They would love more money,” Taylor said, “but I think with the squads that they have today, everyone feels like they are compensated fairly. The athletes and the agents are happy. Now, come December when football is over with and the portal is about to open, we’re probably going to need more than what we had this year. Above-the-cap NIL is going to be the key to keep finding those dollars.”
Taylor is hesitant to promise a huge rise in NIL fundraising, though. He doesn’t think that is possible under the current rules.
Any NIL deal that is worth more than $600 is subject to approval by the College Sports Commission via NIL Go. Taylor said many of those deals have been slow to process or denied. He said the average NIL deal that is getting approved at the moment is $13,000.
“That means it is hard to pay a player $5 million in NIL,” Taylor said. “How many of those $13,000 deals do you have to go through?”
Taylor shared an example of a K-State athlete who agreed to what K-State felt was a “totally legitimate” NIL deal worth $100,000. The deal included autograph sessions and social media posts with a local sponsor. But the CSC determined the deal was above market value by 50%. K-State had to scramble and find another comparable NIL arrangement in order to pay the player his full amount.
After going through that experience, Taylor isn’t sure how some schools are promising so much NIL money to players.
“There are a lot of schools out there writing checks that they can’t cash,” Taylor said. “If a player is promised $2 million in above-the-cap NIL, and the school is doing it the right way, that $2 million isn’t going through, or it’s going through slowly. The kids are getting frustrated.”
To that end, the CSC recently denied millions worth of NIL payments to Nebraska football players and won an arbitration case after that decision was challenged by the Cornhuskers.
“I would rather be conservative,” Taylor said, “and put legit numbers out there that we know we can fundraise, and we know that we can get through NIL Go, as opposed to telling our coaches to promise $10 million, and we’ll see if we can find it. We’re always going to be at the cap and strive to get as much true NIL money as we possibly can. But we’re going to do it the right way.”
Taylor is hopeful that philosophy will lead to better results as the Wildcats shift their focus to next year.