The crown that sits atop long-time Kansas State football maestro Bill Snyder took on a few dents this past week.
The halo slipped a little.
All of this was due to the flap caused by Snyder refusing to release Corey Sutton from his scholarship so he could transfer elsewhere.
Athletic director Gene Taylor said, “after further dialogue with Coach Snyder and the Sutton family, we believe it is in everyone’s best interest to grant Corey his full release.”
That “best interest,” of course, was caused by Snyder improperly hinting that there might have been some drug use by Sutton.
Did Sutton do that? Did Snyder actually let that slip? That is the crux of this brouhaha.
Snyder has long had a policy of not releasing scholarship athletes who want to transfer.
Snyder said, “I believe prospects make a commitment to a program when they sign a national letter of intent.”
True enough but a saw cuts both ways or “what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”
Schools and coaches often make commitments to athletes and then don’t keep them, leaving the athlete with no good choices.
An example is when a coach recruits an athlete, ties him to a letter of intent and then, that year or the next, decides to move on to greener pastures.
In Snyder’s defense, he has not done that, instead remaining at Kansas State for decades but, the point is, many, even MOST, coaches do that and it is not fair to the athletes.
To me this boils down to “why would a coach even want to keep an athlete who doesn’t want to be there?
How happy, how productive, is he going to be?
Currently all of the rules favor the schools and the coaches. Some modification is needed. Times have changed, kids have changed and so have the coaches. Well, MOST of them.
The very things that make Bill Snyder so successful, so loveable and such a good coach are sometimes the things that cause problems in personnel matters.
This might put a little dent in his crown but I doubt his fans, the Wildcat faithful, will mind all that much!
CHALK TALK
Last weekend the Wichita Eagle announced their 2017 All-Metro All Star baseball team. The Wichita area produces many outstanding athletes.
The interesting thing to note that of the 14 top picks, all but two will be playing for community colleges. That points out the strength of the community college baseball programs and also points out how tough, how difficult, it is to make it at a major four-year university in baseball!
Check out the college regionals and the College World Series action on television. Those are your future major-leaguers!
The Big 12 will split $348 million between their 10 members for the 2016-17 year.
For you non-math majors that comes to $34.8 million for EACH school!
This next year that could increase by more than $30 million due to a championship football game. Oklahoma president David Boren, who is outgoing chairman of the Big 12 board of directors, said, “This is ultimately not all about money.”
HUH? Now, come on David.
We’ll admit to being somewhat naïve, even country bumpkins for some of us, but do you REALLY think we’re going to believe that it’s NOT about money?
It’s ALL about money!
That’s what all of this league realignment stuff has been about! Goodness! Next you will be asking us to believe that Hillary really didn’t delete those emails!
“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” Elbert Hubbard.
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
