Ask the AD: August 14, 2026
Aug 13, 2026 | Athletics
Brian Smoller (BS): Ladies and gentlemen, your national nightmare has ended. We are back. It is Ask the AD. He's Gene Taylor. I'm Brian Smoller. It is the first Ask the AD of the 2026-27 athletics season. We are underway. K-State Athletics has finally come. It is ready to go. Soccer kicks off this week. We've got volleyball next week. Football in a couple of weeks. They're already in camp. I guess I would just lead off with this...
Gene Taylor (GT): That was a big introduction, by the way. It was big. We we haven't done this for a bit.
BS: I know you had Wyatt filled in for me, once when I was gone. You were gone. It's good to see you.
GT: Good. Good to see you. Good to be back.
BS: Let's start with this. As an athletic director, you've been doing this for a while. You've been in college athletics for a while.
GT: That's a nice way of saying that I'm old.
BS: I was trying very diplomatically to say that. Do you still get that sense of excitement, anticipation, like a like the previews of a movie or before the movie starts? You still get that sort of buzz, bounce in your step?
GT: I really do, and and there's a lot of ways to do it. I mean, obviously, you know, football practice starts, and that's that's a big part of it. You know, being able to go out to practice, you know, either on a daily basis or whenever I get out there. That really gets the juices flowing. But it just little things like all of a sudden the stadium starts to come alive again. We're putting you know the seatbacks in, your concessionaires at Sodexo getting ready too. You see them hauling you know product to the concession stands. Our operation folks are working every day to get the stadium, you know, sparkling, clean, and ready for the fans. So it's almost like a daily buildup that I get to enjoy, mainly because where my office is and just seeing things begin to. And you know, the staff's coming in. Hey, we got to get this done. We're planning for this. So it's really a daily buildup, starting you know, kind of in the middle of July, really ramping up this time of year, and then in the next couple of weeks, it's going to be crazy.
BS: It's going to be a whole lot of fun building towards September 5 and that home football game. We're going to talk about football. We've got some Olympic sports stuff to get to, alcohol sales in the Bill. I mean, every show, right? It's coming up. We'll get to that in a minute. First, let's talk football scheduling right out of the gate here. This is a good question. This is from Facebook and Erik Stone, who asks: "There are no Big 10 or SEC opponents on the football schedule for the next several years. Since strength of schedule seems to be so important when it comes to getting into the CFP (at least with an at-large bid), how will K-State address that issue?"
GT: Well, a couple of ways. One, I think the Big 12 schedule in itself, where we play nine conference games, is big. It always has been the strength of schedule. You know, being on the CF committee when I was, I'm no longer on it. But you know, that was for four teams. As we've expanded to 12, and if we go to 16, or 20, whatever that number becomes, you know, I think strength of schedule is always going to be important. But it also is going to come down to wins and losses. You know, right now when you start getting, you know, before when you're doing four teams and 12 to get in the, you know, bowl six games or whatever, the top six teams really kind of battled out. They they are 11/12, 13 wins. Now when you start getting to 12, you know, nine wins, eight wins, and if we go to 24, I mean that that group of schools between 12 and 24, those resumes are going to look very similar. That's where strength of the schedule comes in, but also wins and losses. So I think you have to balance it. We do have a new opponent coming out. It's it's an ACC opponent. We're going there in 27 and back here in 28, North Carolina State. So I think we have to build our schedule very deliberately and very strategically, both playing Power Four, obviously outside the Big 12, but you know SEC and Big 10. If there's an opportunity, we're certainly going to play them, but we have to do it the right way.
BS: Yeah, and we've seen a little bit of the Big 10/SEC canceling some games with the the Big 12. I think for this very reason. Everyone's trying to get to nine conference games, understanding that the win total at this point seems more of a number that garners attention than the strength of schedule.
GT: I think it's both, and strength of schedule is still going to play a role. But I don't think it's because we don't want to play a Big 10 or SEC, it's because they've gone to nine and they're doing strategic scheduling as well. So everybody's kind of doing the same thing.
BS: All right, let's talk about the alcohol sales at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. We had this announcement earlier this year, and I know Wyatt and you talked about it. So the question or the comment we get is from MrTroyHenry, @mrtroyh on X. He says: "Where can I send Gene flowers to thank him for allowing alcohol sales at BSFS?" I imagine your inbox is flooded with both positive and negative reactions off of this.
GT: Yeah, you know, obviously, if they want to send flowers, there's a whole group of staff members, senior staff members, that really put this together over the summer, actually the spring, and really did a deep dive into the, you know, the pluses and minuses of doing it. What were the challenges, both physical structure of the stadium, you know, the exit re-entry policy. We really discussed that quite a great deal. You know, certainly there is a revenue piece of it that was very important, but doing it the right way. So it was a it was a long study. They pretty much probably spent most of the months in the spring coming up with it. But you know, we made the decision. We're going to go forward with it. We're going to look at it each year as to what's the best way to approach it. You know, it's going to be new for concessions. The goal is to make sure our fans have another experience. Do it the right way. We know the fans will behave. But the other thing of it is, we want the fans to be coming back in the stadium in the third quarter, and that's probably been one of the positives. People want to see the fans come in, but some people think it's a negative by letting them go out. So it's been a lot of mostly positive, but there's been some criticism as well, and there's always going to be when you make that decision.
BS: You mentioned the experience, Bill Snyder Family Stadium. We're going into a new era, Collin Klein. It's been dubbed 'the new old school', and that means that there will be some things different at the stadium that we can't all tell you right now. But you need to be there to see it in person, starting on September 5th, the opening game. We used to call it the family reunion. There's nobody that's more family than Collin Klein.
GT: No question.
BS: And we need people, everybody there too.
GT: Yeah, I think you're going to see a lot of exciting things for fans. You know, there's been some old school stuff that we haven't done in a while, and there'll be some new things that we will be able to showcase as well. And so you know we're excited about it. I think you know Collin has been very involved with some of the pregame stuff and some of the you know some of the video stuff that we do to bring back both new and old school stuff. So I think fans want them to be intrigued. I want them to come and see it because I think they're going to be excited about what we're going to provide both pregame and in-game experiences.
BS: Keep your eyes peeled to social media channels for K-State Athletics over the next few weeks, as we'll be dropping hints about what some of those things might be ahead of the September 5th opener. 1000 tickets or so left, and of course Section 29 is a new section. Be checking that out as well. All right, next question comes from X and Joel Alderson. Hope I'm saying that right. It's @KingJoel_3. He asks: "Who is the jersey patch sponsor?"
GT: Well, stay tuned. You know, the good news is there's been a lot of interest in our jersey patch. We're close to finalizing an opportunity with a with a company, and it'll be announced soon. But we do have a jersey patch coming, but the the good news is there was a lot of intrigue about it. There was a lot of questions, and we're excited about who that sponsor is going to be.
BS: The only follow up I have to that is (just thought of it) is we've seen some of the schools do jersey patches for specific sports, or the only the Olympic sports, or only female sports. Is this for all K-State sports or just football?
GT: This would be just football, but we are talking to other sponsors about either Olympic sports or women's sports or combination of the two. And again, those conversations are going really well. They just take a while because it's new to folks, it's new to corporations, it's new to companies, the value of it, all those things. So I anticipate that we'll have something for either the men and women's basketball program soon and potentially Olympic sports, but that's a little bit down the road.
BS: All right, pivoting out of that, we'll stay in X and somewhat on the idea of money. The question comes from Rob Chalender, who asks from @ksrob2: "How is the fund raising going to add seating/locker rooms etc. to the indoor track facility? We want to keep Coach Travis happy!" Congratulations to track and field for their remarkable season last year, and Travis and his whole crew. I think, on the larger standpoint, and more from the 40,000 foot view, as we talk about football and men's basketball and these idea of revenue generation ideas, and in this new era, how do you keep and retain coaches like Travis? Or programs that are not necessarily revenue generators - how do you allocate or decide as a head coach? Okay, we're going to invest in these programs.
GT: Yeah, you know, obviously we want to keep our coaches, right? And we know coaches that have success like Travis that had recent success. People are going to come after them, and we want to make sure we give them the atmosphere and the opportunities to be successful. So we'll sit down. We've sat down with Travis. We know what he needs to do to build his program to really a national championship, I won't say a contender now because I think they were already there finishing fourth, but I think he believes he can win a national championship here in either indoor or outdoor. And so we sit down. We figure out, okay, what's your plan for that? And then we have to find a way to come and support that, whether it's through scholarships, rev share, or a combination of both. And we've done that, and we're going to certainly continue to do that. And we have to we still have to manage the budget, and we still have to figure out how to be best successful with the dollars that we need to generate to pay the bill, so to speak. But we also have other opportunities and other reasons that coaches want to stay here. The community, the the support systems outside of just their sports, particularly. So we have a lot of things to give and a lot of things to sell, so to speak, and we'll do everything we can to keep our coaches.
BS: All right. Last question, a pretty good question: "K-State has been the only Big 12 program to operate on a stand-alone basis and remain "profitable." Will that continue in the current fiscal year given revenue sharing requirements"?
GT: Well, it's certainly a challenge. And last year we had a tremendous fundraising year. We raised almost $46 million, which was the largest we've ever done, and we didn't even have a capital campaign. So those were donors that stepped up big time to understand the challenges we face and how important it is to make sure we can balance our budget. You know, it's going to get more challenging each year, and we have to can't we can't just put it on the backs of our donors. You know that's where jersey patches come in, and field naming opportunities, and arena naming opportunities, and court naming opportunities. All those things become critically important. New sections, like you mentioned, Section 29, a premium area in the football arena or football stadium, Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Those are critically important to us to find other revenues, alcohol sales. I mean, all those things add up to help us get to that number that we need to every year, and it's becoming a challenge. It certainly is, and so we have to be creative. We have to be open-minded. We have to find new revenue sources, and we just have to continue to to work really hard to find those areas.
BS: And the Big 12 has seemingly caught onto this idea as well. I mean, the Monster thing has been mentioned a few different times. Brett Yormark and his group also finding different ways to do it ahead of the TV deal, which is coming here in a few years.
GT: Yeah and that's what I give Commissioner Yormark a lot of credit. He is very aggressive. He is finding new ways. He knows that our TV revenue isn't comparative to the Big 10 and the SEC. So how can we, as a conference, get better and generate more revenue, and the Monster deals an additional million dollars per school, and potentially greater down the road. So you know, give him a lot of credit, but that's what it's going to take: a lot of creative ideas, a lot of open-mindedness of different ideas of what ways to generate more revenue. Again, Section 29. I mean, we're 1000 tickets short. You know, selling out football games is massively important for us. And so, every time Bill Snyder Family Stadium is sold out, or you know Bramlage Coliseum is sold out, that's big for us in order in order for us to be able to meet the needs that we need financially.
BS: It also matters. You go out and get new gear like we're wearing today. We're wearing some of the new stuff that's out there for K-State Athletics. There's going to be more gear coming that's going to be very cool for K-State fans. So keep an eye out on that here in the next few weeks and over the months to come. I'm excited to see football, but also all the sports get going. I think there's a hungry energy around soccer, volleyball, even track and field, tennis as they get rolling here and golf soon. Thanks for doing this. Really do appreciate it.
GT: Yeah, it's good to be back. Hope everybody had a great summer. We'll be doing this a little bit more regularly throughout the year, and again, looking forward to everybody coming back to Bill Snyder Family Stadium, having that first sellout for Coach Klein and his new football team, and should be a fun year.
BS: Yeah, those first three games, all first three, the three weeks of the season at home. Want to sell them all out, get this thing rolling on the right foot, and the Coach Klein era. Appreciate it, Gene.
GT: Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it.
BS: That's Director of Athletics, Gene Taylor. As always, keep those questions coming, and we'll get them in for the next installment of Ask the AD.
Gene Taylor (GT): That was a big introduction, by the way. It was big. We we haven't done this for a bit.
BS: I know you had Wyatt filled in for me, once when I was gone. You were gone. It's good to see you.
GT: Good. Good to see you. Good to be back.
BS: Let's start with this. As an athletic director, you've been doing this for a while. You've been in college athletics for a while.
GT: That's a nice way of saying that I'm old.
BS: I was trying very diplomatically to say that. Do you still get that sense of excitement, anticipation, like a like the previews of a movie or before the movie starts? You still get that sort of buzz, bounce in your step?
GT: I really do, and and there's a lot of ways to do it. I mean, obviously, you know, football practice starts, and that's that's a big part of it. You know, being able to go out to practice, you know, either on a daily basis or whenever I get out there. That really gets the juices flowing. But it just little things like all of a sudden the stadium starts to come alive again. We're putting you know the seatbacks in, your concessionaires at Sodexo getting ready too. You see them hauling you know product to the concession stands. Our operation folks are working every day to get the stadium, you know, sparkling, clean, and ready for the fans. So it's almost like a daily buildup that I get to enjoy, mainly because where my office is and just seeing things begin to. And you know, the staff's coming in. Hey, we got to get this done. We're planning for this. So it's really a daily buildup, starting you know, kind of in the middle of July, really ramping up this time of year, and then in the next couple of weeks, it's going to be crazy.
BS: It's going to be a whole lot of fun building towards September 5 and that home football game. We're going to talk about football. We've got some Olympic sports stuff to get to, alcohol sales in the Bill. I mean, every show, right? It's coming up. We'll get to that in a minute. First, let's talk football scheduling right out of the gate here. This is a good question. This is from Facebook and Erik Stone, who asks: "There are no Big 10 or SEC opponents on the football schedule for the next several years. Since strength of schedule seems to be so important when it comes to getting into the CFP (at least with an at-large bid), how will K-State address that issue?"
GT: Well, a couple of ways. One, I think the Big 12 schedule in itself, where we play nine conference games, is big. It always has been the strength of schedule. You know, being on the CF committee when I was, I'm no longer on it. But you know, that was for four teams. As we've expanded to 12, and if we go to 16, or 20, whatever that number becomes, you know, I think strength of schedule is always going to be important. But it also is going to come down to wins and losses. You know, right now when you start getting, you know, before when you're doing four teams and 12 to get in the, you know, bowl six games or whatever, the top six teams really kind of battled out. They they are 11/12, 13 wins. Now when you start getting to 12, you know, nine wins, eight wins, and if we go to 24, I mean that that group of schools between 12 and 24, those resumes are going to look very similar. That's where strength of the schedule comes in, but also wins and losses. So I think you have to balance it. We do have a new opponent coming out. It's it's an ACC opponent. We're going there in 27 and back here in 28, North Carolina State. So I think we have to build our schedule very deliberately and very strategically, both playing Power Four, obviously outside the Big 12, but you know SEC and Big 10. If there's an opportunity, we're certainly going to play them, but we have to do it the right way.
BS: Yeah, and we've seen a little bit of the Big 10/SEC canceling some games with the the Big 12. I think for this very reason. Everyone's trying to get to nine conference games, understanding that the win total at this point seems more of a number that garners attention than the strength of schedule.
GT: I think it's both, and strength of schedule is still going to play a role. But I don't think it's because we don't want to play a Big 10 or SEC, it's because they've gone to nine and they're doing strategic scheduling as well. So everybody's kind of doing the same thing.
BS: All right, let's talk about the alcohol sales at Bill Snyder Family Stadium. We had this announcement earlier this year, and I know Wyatt and you talked about it. So the question or the comment we get is from MrTroyHenry, @mrtroyh on X. He says: "Where can I send Gene flowers to thank him for allowing alcohol sales at BSFS?" I imagine your inbox is flooded with both positive and negative reactions off of this.
GT: Yeah, you know, obviously, if they want to send flowers, there's a whole group of staff members, senior staff members, that really put this together over the summer, actually the spring, and really did a deep dive into the, you know, the pluses and minuses of doing it. What were the challenges, both physical structure of the stadium, you know, the exit re-entry policy. We really discussed that quite a great deal. You know, certainly there is a revenue piece of it that was very important, but doing it the right way. So it was a it was a long study. They pretty much probably spent most of the months in the spring coming up with it. But you know, we made the decision. We're going to go forward with it. We're going to look at it each year as to what's the best way to approach it. You know, it's going to be new for concessions. The goal is to make sure our fans have another experience. Do it the right way. We know the fans will behave. But the other thing of it is, we want the fans to be coming back in the stadium in the third quarter, and that's probably been one of the positives. People want to see the fans come in, but some people think it's a negative by letting them go out. So it's been a lot of mostly positive, but there's been some criticism as well, and there's always going to be when you make that decision.
BS: You mentioned the experience, Bill Snyder Family Stadium. We're going into a new era, Collin Klein. It's been dubbed 'the new old school', and that means that there will be some things different at the stadium that we can't all tell you right now. But you need to be there to see it in person, starting on September 5th, the opening game. We used to call it the family reunion. There's nobody that's more family than Collin Klein.
GT: No question.
BS: And we need people, everybody there too.
GT: Yeah, I think you're going to see a lot of exciting things for fans. You know, there's been some old school stuff that we haven't done in a while, and there'll be some new things that we will be able to showcase as well. And so you know we're excited about it. I think you know Collin has been very involved with some of the pregame stuff and some of the you know some of the video stuff that we do to bring back both new and old school stuff. So I think fans want them to be intrigued. I want them to come and see it because I think they're going to be excited about what we're going to provide both pregame and in-game experiences.
BS: Keep your eyes peeled to social media channels for K-State Athletics over the next few weeks, as we'll be dropping hints about what some of those things might be ahead of the September 5th opener. 1000 tickets or so left, and of course Section 29 is a new section. Be checking that out as well. All right, next question comes from X and Joel Alderson. Hope I'm saying that right. It's @KingJoel_3. He asks: "Who is the jersey patch sponsor?"
GT: Well, stay tuned. You know, the good news is there's been a lot of interest in our jersey patch. We're close to finalizing an opportunity with a with a company, and it'll be announced soon. But we do have a jersey patch coming, but the the good news is there was a lot of intrigue about it. There was a lot of questions, and we're excited about who that sponsor is going to be.
BS: The only follow up I have to that is (just thought of it) is we've seen some of the schools do jersey patches for specific sports, or the only the Olympic sports, or only female sports. Is this for all K-State sports or just football?
GT: This would be just football, but we are talking to other sponsors about either Olympic sports or women's sports or combination of the two. And again, those conversations are going really well. They just take a while because it's new to folks, it's new to corporations, it's new to companies, the value of it, all those things. So I anticipate that we'll have something for either the men and women's basketball program soon and potentially Olympic sports, but that's a little bit down the road.
BS: All right, pivoting out of that, we'll stay in X and somewhat on the idea of money. The question comes from Rob Chalender, who asks from @ksrob2: "How is the fund raising going to add seating/locker rooms etc. to the indoor track facility? We want to keep Coach Travis happy!" Congratulations to track and field for their remarkable season last year, and Travis and his whole crew. I think, on the larger standpoint, and more from the 40,000 foot view, as we talk about football and men's basketball and these idea of revenue generation ideas, and in this new era, how do you keep and retain coaches like Travis? Or programs that are not necessarily revenue generators - how do you allocate or decide as a head coach? Okay, we're going to invest in these programs.
GT: Yeah, you know, obviously we want to keep our coaches, right? And we know coaches that have success like Travis that had recent success. People are going to come after them, and we want to make sure we give them the atmosphere and the opportunities to be successful. So we'll sit down. We've sat down with Travis. We know what he needs to do to build his program to really a national championship, I won't say a contender now because I think they were already there finishing fourth, but I think he believes he can win a national championship here in either indoor or outdoor. And so we sit down. We figure out, okay, what's your plan for that? And then we have to find a way to come and support that, whether it's through scholarships, rev share, or a combination of both. And we've done that, and we're going to certainly continue to do that. And we have to we still have to manage the budget, and we still have to figure out how to be best successful with the dollars that we need to generate to pay the bill, so to speak. But we also have other opportunities and other reasons that coaches want to stay here. The community, the the support systems outside of just their sports, particularly. So we have a lot of things to give and a lot of things to sell, so to speak, and we'll do everything we can to keep our coaches.
BS: All right. Last question, a pretty good question: "K-State has been the only Big 12 program to operate on a stand-alone basis and remain "profitable." Will that continue in the current fiscal year given revenue sharing requirements"?
GT: Well, it's certainly a challenge. And last year we had a tremendous fundraising year. We raised almost $46 million, which was the largest we've ever done, and we didn't even have a capital campaign. So those were donors that stepped up big time to understand the challenges we face and how important it is to make sure we can balance our budget. You know, it's going to get more challenging each year, and we have to can't we can't just put it on the backs of our donors. You know that's where jersey patches come in, and field naming opportunities, and arena naming opportunities, and court naming opportunities. All those things become critically important. New sections, like you mentioned, Section 29, a premium area in the football arena or football stadium, Bill Snyder Family Stadium. Those are critically important to us to find other revenues, alcohol sales. I mean, all those things add up to help us get to that number that we need to every year, and it's becoming a challenge. It certainly is, and so we have to be creative. We have to be open-minded. We have to find new revenue sources, and we just have to continue to to work really hard to find those areas.
BS: And the Big 12 has seemingly caught onto this idea as well. I mean, the Monster thing has been mentioned a few different times. Brett Yormark and his group also finding different ways to do it ahead of the TV deal, which is coming here in a few years.
GT: Yeah and that's what I give Commissioner Yormark a lot of credit. He is very aggressive. He is finding new ways. He knows that our TV revenue isn't comparative to the Big 10 and the SEC. So how can we, as a conference, get better and generate more revenue, and the Monster deals an additional million dollars per school, and potentially greater down the road. So you know, give him a lot of credit, but that's what it's going to take: a lot of creative ideas, a lot of open-mindedness of different ideas of what ways to generate more revenue. Again, Section 29. I mean, we're 1000 tickets short. You know, selling out football games is massively important for us. And so, every time Bill Snyder Family Stadium is sold out, or you know Bramlage Coliseum is sold out, that's big for us in order in order for us to be able to meet the needs that we need financially.
BS: It also matters. You go out and get new gear like we're wearing today. We're wearing some of the new stuff that's out there for K-State Athletics. There's going to be more gear coming that's going to be very cool for K-State fans. So keep an eye out on that here in the next few weeks and over the months to come. I'm excited to see football, but also all the sports get going. I think there's a hungry energy around soccer, volleyball, even track and field, tennis as they get rolling here and golf soon. Thanks for doing this. Really do appreciate it.
GT: Yeah, it's good to be back. Hope everybody had a great summer. We'll be doing this a little bit more regularly throughout the year, and again, looking forward to everybody coming back to Bill Snyder Family Stadium, having that first sellout for Coach Klein and his new football team, and should be a fun year.
BS: Yeah, those first three games, all first three, the three weeks of the season at home. Want to sell them all out, get this thing rolling on the right foot, and the Coach Klein era. Appreciate it, Gene.
GT: Thanks, Brian. Appreciate it.
BS: That's Director of Athletics, Gene Taylor. As always, keep those questions coming, and we'll get them in for the next installment of Ask the AD.
Friday, August 14
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Tuesday, August 11
