In the emotional whirlwind of Chris Klieman’s apparently abrupt decision to retire last week, Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor was sure to be fervent about his longtime friend. But few might have imagined what was consuming Taylor last Wednesday as he dabbed away tears, fought back more of them, began speaking with a quiver in his voice and said he’d been “a mess all day.”
Because even as he was lamenting the departure of Klieman, who had a stellar and even vital run at K-State, he also was mourning something broader and deeper: the churning and chaotic state of college athletics.
“If we don’t get this thing fixed … if we don’t get this thing under control, more really, really good guys like Chris Klieman are going to walk away from this business,” Taylor said at the start of his news conference, later adding, “because they just aren’t ready to deal with what we’re dealing with. We have to get this thing under control.”
Between the sudden news of the day and intense focus on Klieman’s impending replacement — former K-State star quarterback and assistant coach Collin Klein was announced a day later — Taylor was asked only one follow-up question about what he meant.
But he was so eager to elaborate that he was happy to speak about it on the phone Thursday afternoon — even as K-State still was navigating the details of Klein’s hiring.
While Taylor’s public words were widely, and not incorrectly, interpreted to be a sweeping denunciation of the excesses in the flux of the Name, Image and Likeness and transfer portal era, he had a more specific point in mind that essentially encapsulates it all.
He alluded to it when he said every school should sign an 11-page participation agreement put forth by the College Sports Commission to compel schools to cooperate with investigations, abide by enforcement decisions and not file lawsuits challenging rulings.
To Taylor, that means one thing more than anything else: so the business of college sports can be run “as equally as we possibly can. And that’s not the case.”
In fact, he added, schools are ignoring the settlement and operating outside the hoped-for agreement — points he expressed all the more bluntly in a phone interview with The Star.
To Taylor, schools declining to sign the agreement are making a troubling statement after months went into its making (by the CSC with and attorneys and officials from the Power Four conferences) to enforce rules emerging from the $2.8 billion House vs. NCAA lawsuit settlement.
“What they’re upset about is if they get caught cheating, they’re going to be in trouble,” said Taylor, who did not specify any schools. “They could lose revenue share. They could lose conference distribution, They could (suffer) postseason bans.
“Well, you know, if you’re not going to cheat, then this agreement’s OK in my opinion.”
