K-Stated

Kansas State’s new online TV network isn’t on the same level as The Longhorn Network, which has received all kinds of attention for its mammoth contract with ESPN and its recent pursuit of a Big 12 Conference football game to broadcast.

K-StateHD.TV is mainly about exposure.

But the two broadcast entities could end up being similar in one way: They both want to show multiple football games this season.

Should any of its conference home games not be picked up by ABC/ESPN or FOX Sports, K-State athletic director John Currie said the Wildcats will push for that game to be broadcast live on its network.

“If the opportunity presents itself, we’re always going to seek that opportunity,” Currie said. “Anytime we have the opportunity to provide more exposure for our university and our student-athletes we’re going to explore that opportunity.”
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Editor’s note: In preparation of the upcoming football season, K-Stated will look ahead to all 12 games on the Wildcats’ 2011 schedule. Next up, all three nonconference games.

Here’s how far Baylor has come in a few short seasons under Art Briles: TCU, the 14th-ranked team in college football, opens the season in Waco on Friday and the game is being labeled as Must See.

Some are even predicting the Bears to pull the upset.

I’m picking TCU to win a close game, but I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if Baylor starts the 2011 campaign with a signature victory. With Robert Griffin at quarterback, anything is possible.
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Editor’s note: In preparation of the upcoming football season, K-Stated will look ahead to all 12 games on the Wildcats’ 2011 schedule. Next up, at Texas Tech.

If there’s a preseason football poll out there that doesn’t have Kansas finishing last in the Big 12 this season, I haven’t seen it.

The Jayhawks, in coach Turner Gill’s second year, are more or less the unanimous pick to lose more games than any other Big 12 team. Perhaps Sports Illustrated summed up their woes best by predicting them to go 1-11 last week. Their only projected win? The season-opener against McNeese State.

Ouch.

Kansas players have said they are using those projections as motivation heading into the end of fall training camp, and they will no doubt get the Jayhawks practicing with extra enthusiasm. It will probably fuel them enough to start 2-0 with a win against Northern Illinois in Week 2. Beyond that, though, victories will be hard to find.

The Wildcats will take on the Jayhawks in Lawrence on Oct. 22, and after K-State throttled KU 59-7 last year it’s not hard to figure out who will be favored this time around.
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When the Kansas Board of Regents meet in Arcadia on Monday for their annual three-day retreat, Dan Lykins is certain conference realignment will be discussed.

Lykins, a Topeka attorney and Kansas State alum who serves on the board, said he is looking forward to hearing about the topic from both K-State president Kirk Schulz and Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little.

As long as Texas A&M is considering a move to the SEC, he says the status of the Big 12 “is a critical issue that the regents are very concerned about.”

However, he is feeling much better about the league’s future than he was during last summer’s conference realignment scare, when he openly wondered at times if the Big 12 was going to survive.

Though he and the other regents have not been actively involved in any realignment discussions, such as the conference calls that Big 12 athletic directors and presidents participated in Saturday afternoon, he says administrators from both K-State and KU have kept them informed.

So far, he likes what he hears.

“No one can force Texas A&M to do anything,” Lykins said. “Right now, it’s in their corner. So it’s a waiting game. But I feel comfortable that whatever happens, KU and K-State will still be in the Big 12 and will continue working together to make this a better conference … I feel real good about what’s going on.”