Ask the AD - March 16, 2020 - Kansas State University Athletics

Brian: "Welcome to an unusual edition of "Ask the AD", Brian Smoller with the Director of Athletics, Gene Taylor. We didn't put out a call for questions, going to try to answer the most pressing questions on everyone's minds at this point as it is strange times that we live in indeed. Obviously our prayers and thoughts with all those affected at the moment with COVID-19 and hopefully you stay healthy and away from any sort of viral contact. This has been strange times indeed, I would imagine unlike anything you've experienced in your time?"

Gene: "There's a few friends of mine in the business, ADs that said they were looking through the manual to see where this policy was - there isn't any. It was just so fast and furious over the course of the Big 12 Tournament and how things evolved from a full set of games to games with no fans to no games at all. It's ever moving. I tell people all the time, bend your knees, don't lock your knees - you have to be flexible and be willing to change."

Brian: "Let's go back to the Big 12 Tournament because that is the last thing where it parcipitisply dropped off. Take us us through that time frame. What were the calls were like?"

Gene: "Yeah, I think what people saw happen was, literally, the start of the tournament there was a debate. We had a set of meetings right before the tournament started. Bob (Bowlsby), our Commissioner, thought that we probably should cancel that set of games. We quickly adjusted because we were literally an hour and a half away from gates opening. The security there said, 'That's going to cause too many problems.' If we're going to cancel or adjust the fanbase, let's do that later. So we went ahead with the games on (Wednesday) night. During those games, as we saw, things began to unfold with the NBA. We then announced that we would play the games, but we would go to limited fans the rest of the tournament. Then (Wednesday) night, during our game, is when the NBA canceled their one game and then eventually canceled their season. We met again on (Thursday) morning, an emergency meeting, and that's when Bob was getting messages from the NCAA. He was getting messages from the other Power 5 commissioners. So we were literally getting text messages during the course of our meeting while we were deciding. Then Bob would say, 'Well, the Pac-12 is canceling theirs, and the Big Ten is canceling theirs.' So, it was really kind of driven by what everybody else was doing. Then, ultimately, we canceled our tournament. It was very difficult. I had to go over and tell our women's team - they were right across the street. There were a lot of tears. Casey Scott was able to tell the men's team. Again, a lot of emotion, particularly for the seniors. Then it just continued to evolve in terms of the NCAA coming out and cancelling the spring sports. That caught us all a little bit by surprise, we were a little surprised by that. Now, of course where we are today, it makes a lot of sense. So, coming back and just having those conversations with our baseball team. The track athletes were at the national championship. I asked TJ (Tejaswin Shankar) our high jumper last night, 'How did you find out? Did they bring you together?' He said, 'No, coaches were literally hearing about it and they just said we're done.' So here, kids were getting ready to compete, and it's heartbreaking. Lauren (Taubert), our senior, was just devastated because it was her last chance. So, those are stories, but everybody is dealing with it. It's not just a K-State thing."

Brian: "You mention the seniors as a whole, whether they get their eligibility back or not, I know that remains to be seen, it's in flux. As a thank you to them, the remarkable adversity they're going to have to face going through this thing now."

Gene: "Those are tough times. You stand in front of these young men and women who work extremely hard at their craft, not only from the athletic perspective, but the academic perspective. Everything they come to K-State for and every athlete across the country - whatever level, people forget that the decisions made at the NCAA level are not just Division I or a Power 5 decision, you have multiple championships. There are so many young men and women being affected. My heart breaks for those kids, particularly the seniors because they may or may not get another chance to compete at the collegiate level. For those that do have a chance, they're going to get another year, in terms of the juniors, sophomores and freshmen. We do need to do something for the seniors, but I'm not sure what that is yet."

Brian: "We did see the NCAA announce an extra year of eligibility for spring sports athletes, what that cutoff is for spring sports is yet to be determined. Notably, baseball had most of its season adjusted."

Gene: "Well, they are talking about that. They haven't come up with a plan yet. There are a lot of different options. Our coaching groups, like the baseball coaches, they're looking at different options. Could we move it to a summer season and not necessarily lose the season? Could we move it to the fall and play next fall? Those are some things that are being talked about around the eligibility of our senior athletes for the spring sports because they're the ones that didn't get to compete in a full season. Basketball seniors, even though they didn't get to go to the NCAA Tournament, they competed in a full season. That's where those are difficult discussions as well."

Brian: "I could see where it would be difficult, because there's a ripple effect, in waving a wand and saying spring sport athletes have an extra year of eligibility. There's the incoming class, the incoming class being recruited, a staggering amount of dominos that could fall."

Gene: "If you just look at the basketball (situation). If you give the seniors eligibility another year, what about that sophomore or junior? You have a sophomore who's waiting to be in the starting lineup because that senior is graduating, now all of the sudden that senior gets to come back, does that sophomore get an extra year of eligibility? Does that freshman? The number of scholarships - there are so many moving parts and it's really difficult to get our hands around. At least we're talking about it, it's not like we're shutting down any ideas. We're talking about it within the conference, we're talking about it within the NCAA committees. We don't have an answer yet, but at least we're trying to figure out something as best we can."

Brian: "Now becomes the question of now what, that's what everyone's saying, without sports and moving forward. In the short term, what is the now-what for K-State?"

Gene: "As serious as this is, and we want people to take it serious. We want to do everything we can to stop the disease from spreading - that's why we cancelled so many things, across the country. We also know people need a distraction or something to think about. We do feel that football is going to move forward with the fall and fall camps are going to start in August. If we do everything right between now and then, could spring ball start later? Possibly. But in the meantime I think we're going to have an opportunity for our fans to go back and look at some of the greatest moments of K-State Athletics. You know the ESPNs of the world are running old games right now. We want to do as much as we can and put things out there to keep our fans updated with how our coaches are doing, how our athletes are doing. We'll find ways to do that appropriately. We also know it's very serious, but yet we want to help our fans have a distraction and know things are moving forward and everybody's going to do ok, and eventually, we'll get there."

Brian: "One of the things you can check out on the website is a live webcam of the South End Zone project continuing on, I guess construction doesn't stop during this time."

Gene: "As far as we know construction is going forward. You start to worry a little bit about material and that sort of thing, but right now they're still working every day and that's a good thing."

Brian: "Appreciate the time. It isn't necessarily that you're busy with having to run around and do the normal AD stuff, but it's a different AD challenge during this time for sure."

Gene: "I hope our fans - I think they're great and will be patient and understanding. We're going to still move forward with our season tickets, we'll have some flexibility there as we move forward. We'll get you as updated as we can as things unfold, just hang in there, we'll get through this if we get through it together."

Kansas State University Athletics

Ask the AD - March 16, 2020

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