Ask the AD Transcript - June 4, 2019 - Kansas State University Athletics

K-State Director of Athletics Gene Taylor discusses a number of topics and fields a few submitted questions in the latest edition of Ask the AD, hosted by K-State's Brian Smoller. A partial transcript is below.

BS: What can you tell us on the Big 12 meetings?

GT: There wasn't a lot of heavy lifting this year which isn't unusual right now. A lot of the end of the year meetings are a lot about sports specific you know, policy changes and rule changes. We spent a lot of time talking about the transfer rules and how we are going to handle that as a conference and where we go nationally.
What are feelings are from a national standpoint and how do we handle inner conference transfers. We didn't really come to any conclusion because we really were just talking about how we'd like to put this forward. There is a lot of frustrations with it. We understand it, it's the life we live in. That was probably the main thing of the conversation. Talking about the revenue distribution, we announced that we had $38.8 million which was third in the Power five. A lot of it was more sport specific and nothing heavy at the Big 12 meetings.

BS: They also mentioned that $38.8 million is also second tier which does not include the third tier rights of each school so that number is actually a little higher per school based on their third tier deal. The transfer rule will obviously get more talk in the next few months.

GT: Yeah, it will continue in conversation obviously you have heard a lot of stuff nationally about it and the amount of student athletes in the portal. A lot of those student athletes don't really have anywhere to go now. It is really gonna be kind of interesting to see how we move forward as the Big 12 and where we are going to go nationally over the next 12 months.

BS: Our first question comes from dgshocker14 on twitter. Your top three K-State sports moments from this past school year.

GT: Oh boy, I love those questions. It is tough for me there are so many great sports moments that I didn't see. Track athletes had great performances and they are still performing in Austin (Texas). Our Golf team had those individual and team performances and I do not get a chance to see them compete. If I have to pick three I am going to go with two basketball, obviously the win over KU at home. That last dunk was unbelievable. The noise level to me was as loud as I have ever heard it in Bramlage. Although the Oklahoma win was not an exciting win because we won pretty handily, the celebration for those seniors was phenomenal, the fans stuck around. Then really I am going to pick Baseball because of the way they fought back through this year and it really wasn't just one particular game. To watch that team kind of mature. Then one was not really a sports moment but just hiring Chris Klieman and where that started to where it ended was a lot of fun to see the reaction from the fan base. I love the passion from our fan base but those were probably the three top performances

BS: Speaking of Football a big topic discussion here lately has been the idea of beer and alcohol sales. We have talked about this a couple of times on Ask the A.D. but several fans have asked about football and men's basketball specifically with the SEC recently in the move.

GT: That is a conversation a lot of schools in the SEC had. That was banned by the conference so they just allowed schools to reconsider that. That is still a conversation we are having. One of the things that I will get probably the most emails on whether for or against it is this particular question. There is nothing imminent in the next year or two but it is certainly something we will monitor. Oklahoma State just added it in football. I think there are four or five schools in the Big 12 that are doing it in football. Currently we do it in baseball and soccer and we have never had any problems. It is something we will continue to monitor and look at and survey our fans at one point and say how do we want to handle it and are you in favor or opposed to it. The fans will certainly have an opportunity with it before we make a final decision.

We do have in the terrace and same spots around the stadium so it is not like we don't sell it. We just don't sell it in all public areas.

BS: Speaking of the football stadium facilities is another question you get quite a bit about. We have two questions today kind of about the same deal both jumping a little bit on the gun of the facility plan saying what is next for Bill Snyder Family Stadium is it video boards for the south end zone and are you getting closer to announcing the next step …

GT: We are getting closer. We had a great time taking our facility master plan out to our donors and showing them the plan and getting a feel for what is interesting them and what are they interested in. I would say that there are three to four projects within the facility master plan. One is the south end zone, one is the Olympic facility volleyball training center and one is the Indoor football practice field. Those are where we are getting the most interest from the donors to continue to take this plan out and hopefully sometimes later this summer or early fall we will come out with what are first projects are going to be and maybe a full blown capital campaign that we are going to announce. We are getting close and there is a lot of interest. I would say that the south end zone is one of the areas where there is a great deal of interest in.

BS: The questions always come fast and furious about Softball and Wrestling. I can't even imagine how many times we have answered the question on Ask the A.D...

GT: I tell people all the time, those are two sports I love dearly. Every place I have been before has had those two sports. Obviously with the Softball World Series going on right now there is a lot of interest. You see the fan interest in softball and wrestling. Both of those sports are great sports. We are not going to add any sports any time soon. We are at our point from a budget perspective we are not even considering any sports. However someday if we do certainly both of those will be considered. Right now or any time in the near future we will not be adding softball or wrestling here and I am not sure when we would.

BS: Final question and I had a little fun with this. Our good friend scottwildcat helped us out with this one. Obviously when we get into grilling season it is time to talk about grilling food. Let's start with the easy one first is hot dog or sandwich?

GT: I've never consider it a sandwich.

BS: How about your steak being cooked?

GT: Medium Rare

BS: Really? Do you just take the horns off and put it on the plate.

GS: Not quite that. A friend of mine has said "I want to cook it so rare that a vet could bring it back". I'm not sure I am that way but a medium rare steak is what I prefer.

BS: Alright and ideal topping for cheeseburgers

GT: I am always a big cheeseburger guy. I'd say lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles then I like mustard and ketchup.

BS: I am not a cheeseburger guy. I'll go hamburger though. Mustard and pickle for sure and sometimes I use barbecue.

BS: Coming up this summer, Catbacker Tour, still in the mix of that.

GT: We are still in the mix of that we have a few more left. I missed the western sling due to some travel. The crowds have been great. Coach Klieman has gotten out to several of them. The reaction and reception for him has been awesome. We have a lot of student athletes and coaches involved so again it is an enjoyable time to get out across the state. We have such a passionate fan base. We have three or four or five more to go. I appreciate the fans that come out and the effort. We love doing it

BS: We keep it rollin on with Ask the A.D. we take a break in July but then we'll be back in August as we ramp it up for the 2019-20 season. With the Director of Athletics Gene Taylor, I am Brian Smoller thank you for watching ask the A.D.

Kansas State University Athletics

Ask the AD Transcript - June 4, 2019

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