KANSAS BOARD OF REGENTS FORENSIC AUDIT RELEASED
June 19, 2009

The audit that apparently is routinely conducted when a university president leaves office has been made public. The Board of Regents resisted, but apparently the Attorney General's office intervened at the request of the Manhattan Mercury. I have it downloaded, but I'll refer you to the Mercury, since they went to the effort to get it. They will have more on the subject on June 21. The Kansas City Star has a lengthy evaluation in today's paper. The Topeka Capital has a story, Audit lines blurred at KSU, and an Austin Meek piece, Audit shows need for accountability.

CURRIE TACKLING PROBLEMS HEAD ON
June 19, 2009

Austin Meek has a good profile on John Currie in today's Topeka Capital-Journal. I personally have a good feeling about our new main man.

EPPS UP FOR A BIG BUYOUT JACKPOT
June 16, 2009

Austin Meek reports in a story today in the Topeka Capital-Journal that if senior associate athletic director Jim Epps is fired, he'll suddenly be worth about $900,000. Seriously, isn't it time that someone forced the public release of the forensic audit conducted by the Kansas Board of Regents recently?

EPPS AND CAVELLO PLACED ON LEAVE
June 10, 2009

Various sources announced today that Senior Associate A.D. Jim Epps and Bob Cavello, associate A.D. for business, have been placed on administrative leave while John Currie, our new director of athletics, investigates the Bob Krause / Ron Prince scandal. The Wichita Eagle was one of the first to break the news. Here's the Topeka Capital's version of the story.

$4,400,000 TO MAKE PRINCE GO AWAY?
May 25, 2009

Oh, boy... where do you even start?

On April 4, 2008, Vice-President Bob Krause was named as K-State's Director of Athletics. His contract was for June 15, 2008 through June 14, 2013.

On August 7, 2008, in appreciation for his blockbuster 12-13 record, Krause awarded Ron Prince a new, five-year contract, with a $1,200,000 buyout. On August 7, 2008, Krause and Ron Prince also secretly signed a buyout agreement which would supplement his buyout package if he were terminated "without cause" in various date ranges. On November 5, 2008, four days after KU defeated the Cats 52-21, it was announced that Prince would not return as coach. This termination date kicked in a clause in the agreement memo which obligated K-State to pay him $800,000 on 12/31/2015 and 12/31/2016, followed by $1,600,000 on 12/31/2020.

What kind of creative logic indicated guaranteeing a $4.4 million buyout to a sub-.500 coach, who every Wildcat with basic common sense knew was going to be fired after the upcoming season? Now, an argument could be made that a modest extension might help with recruiting, but so could a competent head coach in place of the current coach, whose team had become dysfunctional, and whose staff was in constant turnover.

The $1.2 million drew widespread ricidule and anger on sports message boards, because a good percentage of fans didn't want Prince to even begin the third season. Both Prince and Krause must have known the supplemental $3.2 million buyout was beyond outrageous, as neither had revealed it over the course of the subsequent nine months leading up to May 2009. Clearly the team of K-State lawyers, or at least Dick Seaton, would have looked over the official contract, but none knew of the one-page, $3.2 million deal. I know this to be true. Just look at the simplicity of the language in the Memorandum of Understanding, compared to the main contract.

Here are some questions I have:

1. The buyout, now in effect, is to pay Prince in increments of $800,000 and $1,600,000. The payments are to be made six, seven and 11 years from now. How on earth does one keep secret writing a check that large, and following a timeline that would be completed when Bob Krause (born 9/12/45) would be 75 years old? Given the fact that his boss and benefactor, Jon Wefald, would have been retired 11 years earlier, was Krause presuming that he'd still be athletic director at that age, and on site in Bramlage Coliseum to manipulate the books to get that final $1,600,000 check written with no one noticing?

   (I don't use the word benefactor frivolously, given the $298,437 in "consulting" fees that Wefald and the I.A.C. had paid Krause, above and beyond his vice-president/athletic director salary, which had risen to $219,466 in September of 2008. The "consulting" fee also rose to $75,000 annually with the new A.D. contract.)

2. Why were the payments to be made so far into the future? Could it be to avoid angering the next coach, if he found out?

3. Is our athletic department not audited on some kind of regular basis?

4. K-State has a track record of going to court to settle disputes. An example would be the very public lawsuit with Morris Communications over the WIBW radio rights contract, or the ongoing lawsuit with Tim Tibesar, who can't seem to understand why he was fired with Ron Prince, after producing a defense that was #117 of 119 Bowl Subdivision teams. Again, most everyone knew Prince was a short-timer. Why not trust your lawyers, rather than creating the equivalent of a loss of a $4,400,000 court decision?

5. If the purpose of Prince's contract extension was to make him look stable to recruits, what could be more useful than public knowledge that he had a $4,400,000 contract buyout?

6. What if the previous $300,000 buyout were not sufficient to keep Ron Prince onboard? There's your out right there. You tell him bye, and count your blessings. He was 12-13, and coming off a 5-7 season. Big deal if he walks.

7. Does Ron Prince have something on Kansas State University, or have some kind of actionable complaint about his tenure here? Was there a fear that he would spill his guts about something if not rewarded handsomely on his departure? I have no reason to think so, but sometimes unspoken fears carry more impact than actual threats.

8. Is Ron Prince hireable as a head coach again, anytime in his life, after pressing for this ridiculous buyout? It's already a national story.

9. How could Jon Wefald have no knowledge of this agreement, after he's micromanaged Intercollegiate Athletics in recent years? Tim Weiser is gone because of the dispute with Jon Wefald over increasing Prince's buyout from $300,000 to $1,200,000. As Weiser told Austin Meek of the Topeka Capital, "I felt it was not in the best interest of the university to adjust the buyout, because I felt there had not been enough of a track record or frame of reference to increase it. President Wefald felt that to be competitive in the Big 12 relative to other coaches, the buyout needed to be increased." Then Weiser is replaced by Wefald's closest associate over the past 22 years, and leaves with an approximate $1,900,000 buyout of his own. But, by all reports, the president was completely blindsided by Krause's move.

10. Just checking on something: Did we really let Ron Prince teach a leadership class here? (The answer is yes.) I wonder if there are any books on ethics in Prince's well-publicized library. I wonder if any of his books recommend against going through life as an arrogant, self-serving jerk.

11. What is the Intercollegiate Athletic Council doing to prevent future occurrences of outrageous management like this? Why did they not know of this Memorandum of Understanding?

There's ongoing discussion as to whether fans should withdraw financial support of K-State athletics, as reported in this Associated Press story in today's Manhattan Mercury. By the way, the Mercury is running a poll now: Is Bob Krause

• a numbskull?
• corrupt?
• a fall guy?
• unlucky?

This whole scenario is hard for me to forgive. Prince's buyout is 100-plus times many K-State employees' annual salary, and Athletics, between donations and ticket prices, is getting a percentage of my take-home pay that I'm too embarrassed to itemize here. I want to look toward the future. It's the only rational thing to do. But the new director of athletics, John Currie, is going to have to take the department to an incredible level of financial transparency if he wants my money. He's going to have to endure all kinds of second-guessing by donors. The one thing in his favor is that K-State is undergoing an almost complete reset in its administration, and there seems to be hope that we're entering a new era of competence and businesslike decisions. (You know... the sort of thing Tim Weiser was trying to do.)

Just after I posted this, I discovered an interesting theory put forth by Austin Meek of the Capital Journal. He has interviewed people who believe that Krause was so intent on becoming athletic director, after being the supervisor for 20 years, that he started taking actions to enlist the future support of head coaches when the position became vacant. If this hypothesis is true, it would support the idea that Jon Wefald knew nothing of the Krause/Prince agreement.

Early in Bob Krause's time here, I heard him speak several times. One of his favorite themes was the idea of win-win situations. If you look at his decisions over the years in dealing with university departments, that concept seemed to guide his actions. I think he thought both he and Prince would win from this agreement, as long as it remained unknown to the public.

Regardless of any theories on Krause's motivation, the nation now knows that he has squandered $4,400,000 of Cat fans' hard-earned money, and has resigned/been terminated from the university in disgrace. If Tim Weiser were still in Bramlage Coliseum, Ron Prince would have been fired at a cost of $300,000.

This just in on May 28: Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star published a blog today entitled "Prince: No More Candy 4 U." It's a biting and pretty funny assessment of this colossal mess.

The more I've thought about this, the more I've considered others' theories, I'm currently subscribing to the theory of some fans who say to consider Occam's Razor. One application of the theory is that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible. What do we know?

• President Wefald wanted Ron Prince hired. In the announcement press conference, he quoted Rev. Martin Luther King, and framed the choice as a diversity hire. The president went on and on with this theme. (I thought Wefald should have let the hire speak for itself, but he chirped on and on about it, as he is inclined to do.) One knew he wouldn't want to cast aside this accomplishment very soon. By the way, I haven't made it known yet in this essay that I was completely sold on Ron Prince at the time of his hire, and predicted that he would be very successful here. By the end of the first season, I came to realize that extreme arrogance guided Prince's actions and decisions, and would be his undoing.

• Tim Weiser wanted to fire Ron Prince after two seasons.

• Tim Weiser's contract was bought out for $1,900,000 after he didn't get his way on firing Jim Wooldridge and Ron Prince. The president wouldn't spend that kind of money if he intended for Weiser's replacement to be allowed to fire Prince.

• The 2008 football season went even worse than most would have predicted, with losses such as 58-28 (TTU), 58-35 (OU), 52-21 (KU, the last straw), 41-24 (MU) and 56-28 (NU).

• Bob Krause knew that the chain of events that placed him in the A.D.'s office were tied to his predecessor's desire to fire Ron Prince. Whether made an explicit condition in his selection or not, he knew the president's wishes.

• Ron Prince had to know that Bob Krause was A.D. because the president didn't want to fire him. He wasn't our most successful coach, but he is smart, and certainly connected the dots. He knew he was in the driver's seat, and he took advantage of the circumstances in a major way.

Bob Krause couldn't see what most every Cat fan knew: Ron Prince needed to be fired for his dysfunctional football program, the great majority of fans wanted him fired, and the president would have to accede to their demands in short order, or face a major uprising among them.

I don't currently believe that the $3,200,000 buyout was involved with corruption, but rather the actions of a man who spent a good part of his career carrying out President Wefald's wishes. With a serious lack of critical thinking, he thought he was going to accomplish that, secretly, while leaving the president plausible deniability.

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE COST THE CATS THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
March 16, 2009

THE NIT BRACKET'S OUT
March 15, 2009

The NIT has the 2009 tournament bracket out. The Cats get Illinois State on Wednesday, 3/18 at 7 P.M. CDT. K-State Sports Information has a release with game notes, etc. There's a separate release for ticket purchase, including an online option (which begins at 9 A.M. on Monday).

NIT SELECTION SHOW ON MARCH 15
March 15, 2009

The 2009 National Invitational Tournament selection show will be on ESPNU at 8 P.M. CDT. First round action for the NIT, which was founded in 1938, kicks off on March 17 and 18; second round takes place on March 19, 20, 21 and 23, with the quarterfinals tipping on March 24 and 25. The tournament comes to New York's Madison Square Garden for the semi-final doubleheader on March 31, with the championship game on April 2.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CATS ON THE TEXAS A&M WIN
February 7, 2009

Confidence. Teamwork. Hard work. Excellent coaching and scouting. Our Cats know how to win on the road. As this is written, they're in fourth place in the Big 12 race. Listen to an .mp3 of Coach Martin's post-game comments here. I also have team comments.

DENIS CLEMENTE: ESPN PLAYER OF THE WEEK
January 28, 2009

Here's ESPN's announcement. Also, Austin Meek in the Topeka Capital proclaims this "the single greatest individual performance IÕve ever witnessed on a basketball court."

TRADITION OF CHAMPIONS: MEN'S BASKETBALL HISTORY DVD
December 27, 2008

I took four hours over the holiday weekend to watch all of this documentary. It has segments on teams, coaches, facilities and memorable moments. It has commentary from a number of former players and coaches. When they refer to a great game or moment, the DVD will then go to footage of the game.

Some of the former players with commentary are Mr. K-State, Ernie Barrett, Jack Parr, Bob Boozer, Rick Harman, Larry Weigel, Lew Hitch, Wally Frank, Howard Shannon, Steve Douglas, Dick Knostman, Roy DeWitz, Bill Guthridge, Don Matuszak, Lloyd Krone, Bob Chipman, Carl Gerlach, Scott Langton, Steve Henson, Chuckie Williams and Lon Kruger.

Former coaches Lon Kruger and Greg Grensing were interviewed at length at UNLV, and the legendary Tex Winter had all kinds of stories from his 15 years at K-State. Current coach Brad Underwood has great stories about the Hartman era.

Journalists and broadcasters we hear from include Fred White, Steve Physioc, Wyatt Thompson, Ben Boyle, Steven Farney, Kevin Haskin, Greg Sharpe, Tim Fitzgerald, John Dodderidge, David Smale and Mark Janssen.

This would be great for serious newer fans to see the level of talent and commitment necessary to have teams that played in the Final Four, and routinely went to the NCAA tournament. Here's the link.

Sometimes with productions like this, you look at it once, and that's it. I see myself going back to it often. As I write this, I'm already on my second pass through.

WHITLOCK: KANSAS STATE COULD BE A PLEASANT SURPRISE
December 11, 2008

It's not every day that Jason will write a mostly-positive column about any Wildcat team. Here's what he has to say about men's basketball.

I THINK IT'S BILL SNYDER.
November 23, 2008

Since we learned that Ron Prince would be moving on, I've been telling people that I wouldn't be surprised if our next head coach is Bill Snyder, but I wasn't positive he would accept.

I've also said all along that if I'm correct and Bill Snyder would replace Ron Prince, we absolutely wouldn't know it until the season is over. After spending an hour a week with Coach Snyder at his radio shows for 17 years, I know him well enough to state that he would consider it rude to be announced as coach while Ron Prince was still officially our coach. He would also worry that the announcement would be a distraction to the team, and should not occur prior to the last game. Along with his brilliance as a coach, Bill Snyder is a gentleman. He would want Ron Prince to have full authority and respect while still employed.

The unattributed reports from anonymous message board posters that Gary Patterson's wife has been in Manhattan finalizing the purchase of a house carry absolutely no weight with me. I haven't seen a single conclusive piece of evidence that Coach Patterson wants to come here, and his alleged denials to TCU team members, if true, fit a consistent pattern of response from him. I think that hopeful fans are putting entirely too much on the fact that he is an alumnus. He was here about 25 years ago, and to my knowledge has not kept close ties. He has not even taken the opportunity, over the past three weeks, to wish us well in our search.

What about the search committee that Bill Snyder was supposedly a member of? Well, if he were seen meeting with Jon Wefald and Bob Krause, people would just assume it was a committee meeting. Or not.

Mark Janssen of the Manhattan Mercury, who I consider the ultimate source on K-State football, seems to agree with me. Mark wrote today that, "The silence and privacy of the last two-plus weeks looks and feels very Snyder-like." That much is certain.

I think I'm right, and I definitely hope I'm right.

JOIN THE FACEBOOK GROUP IN SUPPORT OF THE BAND.
November 19, 2008

Click here.

SGA vs. THE PRIDE OF WILDCAT LAND
November 18, 2008

Word is circulating from marching band members that there is activity in Student Senate to phase out funding of the K-State Marching Band over three years. I'm going to be collecting background info on this as the week goes on. Click on the image below to visit a Web site created today in support of the band. This site shows that the top leadership in student government is behind this proposal.

Students who want to know what SGA is up to can go to their main site, or go direct to their minutes page to track meeting activity and roll call votes. As this story develops, if there is any way we as fans can support the band, I'll be sure to post updates here.

Here's a PDF which shows SGA's decisions and activity over 2007-08. You can also research their legislation over the past 20 years here. Follow the mischief of the Privilege Fee Committee here

GOING ON THE RECORD ON THE LAVENDER MBB UNIFORMS...
November 15, 2008

I was pleasantly surprised to see the Cats in the latest version of Jack Hartman's lavender-over-purple road uniforms. If you'd like to see what these uniforms mean in terms of our program's history, look here. If you're not aware of the Hartman era and K-State's winningest coach, you may enjoy reading up on it a little bit.

NU JOB PROVED TO BE TOO GOOD TO TURN DOWN (SHARPE)
November 14, 2008

Kevin Haskin has a nice article in the Topeka Capital-Journal about Greg Sharpe's move to Nebraska. I'm still mad at Tim Weiser for messing with an excellent relationship with WIBW.

K-STATE PRIDE
November 14, 2008

The Pride of Wildcat Land rolled out of Manhattan at the crack of dawn to make it to the KU football game on Nov. 1. They performed extremely elaborate marching maneuvers to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody," and by all reports blew the roof off the dump. A band member told me yesterday that they may perform it again this Saturday to show the Nebraska band a few things. I promise you you'll be filled with pride if you take 7:16 to watch this YouTube video of the performance. Notice the cheering from the Hawk fans at the end of the performance. Here's another YouTube video of their performance of it for the Central States Marching Festival on October 19 in Bill Snyder Family Stadium.

FROM FRANK MARTIN TO ALL OF US...
November 11, 2008

K-State Fans:
If you weren't in Bramlage Coliseum on Sunday, you missed a great start to our 2008-09 season. Jacob Pullen led the team with 21 points in our 81-57 victory over Washburn, and our new guys got their first game as a Wildcat under their belt. Denis Clemente has made an immediate impact on our team — scoring 12 points and leading the team with 5 assists.

We return seven lettermen, including five who started at least one game last year. Along with our talented newcomers, they have come together as a team like no group I've coached before, and that's a special thing to witness. They're out to prove that we haven't skipped a beat since last season's NCAA tournament appearance and 3rd place finish in the Big 12.

For those of you who celebrated with us last season when we ended the streak and beat KU, you know what a special place Bramlage Coliseum can be. What I'm challenging you to do this year is to make Bramlage Coliseum the toughest arena in the country — night-in and night-out, from the first game until the last.

In order to do that, we must have people in the seats. If you can't come to a game, give your ticket to someone who wants to experience K-State Basketball first-hand, or send it back to us and we'll make sure a Fort Riley soldier takes your spot in the arena (Call 1-800-221-CATS for details on donating your tickets.)

During my time here, I've learned how special K-Staters are, and I've seen you support the team through ups and downs, wins and losses. I'm asking you to make sure your seat is filled by you, or someone else, for every game this season so that our kids have the best home court advantage in the country.

I'm looking forward to another successful K-State Basketball Season. I hope you'll be there along the way, including this Friday, November 14, as we take on Florida A&M in Bramlage at 7 P.M. Thank you for supporting us, and GO STATE!

— Head Coach Frank Martin

Here's Jason's column in the Kansas City Star. He favors the return of legendary head coach Bill Snyder. I personally have no idea if he would agree to return, but it will be fascinating to see.

ZAC BURTON ON THE STATE OF K-STATE FOOTBALL
November 4, 2008

Former quarterback Zac Burton has an opinion piece in the Manhattan Mercury on our coaching situation. It's time for a resolution. As it stands now, the uncertainty about the state of K-State fooball is a soap opera for boys. Fans want answers. I don't predict any action until the end of the month.

WE HAVE GOT TO DO OUR JOBS
October 4, 2008

I'm on this again because someone's not listening to me. I don't know anything about football, but after 38 years I know a lot about K-State athletics. This is not about game strategy, or whether there should be personnel changes after giving up 626 yards. This is about fans.

We fans must provide absolute support to our coaches and players at games. Fan support is going down fast. This is detrimental to the motivation of our players, and the income Athletics needs to compete in the Big 12. It's sure to damage recruiting. I saw the same thing happen in men's basketball during the Asbury and Wooldridge eras. How can you recruit top players with the kind of fan support shown on regional ABC coverage today? If you don't like what's going on, write a letter with your ideas to Dr. Wefald or Bob Krause, but don't cast your vote by not showing up. Potential players and coaches need to see that even if our winning percentage is down, K-State is a great place to be, and a great place to play.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR STUDENT SECTION?
September 28, 2008

The student section couldn't have been more than 1/3 filled in the fourth quarter vs. Louisiana, and was probably closer to 1/4. I sat on that side for years, and know what it's like to be cooked for several hours, but I never once left early. Our students have been an important part of our football teams' success in the past. We need you.

WILDCATS ARE IN TROUBLE
September 21, 2008

Mark Janssen pulls no punches in today's column with this title on the state of K-State Football.

TOP SPENDERS IN SPORTS RECRUITING
August 1, 2008

The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story on the expenditures on athletic recruiting. The article includes a chart which lists K-State as #5 in the nation in spending for 2006 - 07. I wonder whether that was before the ban on private aircraft that KU got put into place. K-State was the biggest spender in the Big 12, although not far above NU and UT.

BIG 12 FOOTBALL COACHES' SALARIES
July 20, 2008

The Oklahoman has compiled a look at coaches' base pay, plus extras. How do these guys make ends meet?

INTERESTING INTERVIEW WITH BOB KRAUSE
July 7, 2008

Tom Keegan has an interesting interview with Athletic Director / Vice-President Bob Krause in today's Lawrence Journal-World.

I KNEW TEXAS HAD MONEY, BUT GOODNESS...
September 30, 2007

Look at this article in the American Statesman on the $107,600,000 budget of University of Texas athletics.

OK... KANSAS IS THE WHEAT STATE, BUT PLEASE...
February 2, 2007

Once again, controversy has developed over the Cat Band's playing Gary Glitter's Rock and Roll Pt. 2, or as the band sometimes calls it, Time Lords. I've never noticed it, but apparently this past year the students have substituted the item that we're going to beat out of our opponent. It's not a good choice for our younger and more conservative fans, but that's not why I called you here.

Whether at football, basketball or volleyball, every time the band plays that tune, the students stick their arms up and wave them back and forth. Stop it! Why don't our students understand that they're waving the wheat, which is a decades-old KU tradition? It makes me sick every time I see it. The bands have to stop playing that song if our students don't realize they're participating in a highly disgusting KU tradition.