Bring On The Cats, a Kansas State Wildcats community

Eight Miami Hurricanes, starters all, have been declared ineligible by the university. Now the NCAA must decide whether to reinstate the athletes. Click the link for more analysis.

All of Kansas State’s 16 athletic teams met and exceeded the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate multi-year standard of 925 when the NCAA released its latest Division I APR data from the 2009-10 academic year Tuesday. Kansas State, which has led the Big 12 in graduation rate in each of the last four years, scored record-high marks across the board, and for the first time since the APR guidelines were established seven years ago, all K-State teams bettered the standard.

Kansas State’s NCAA second-round match-up with Utah State will tip at approximately 8:57 p.m. CST Thursday night from the McKale Center and be televised nationally on TruTV, as the NCAA and University of Arizona announced start times and broadcast information for the NCAA second and third rounds in Tucson, Ariz. The Wildcats and Aggies will tip 30 minutes after the Wisconsin-Belmont game, set to begin at 6:27 p.m. CST Thursday. The winners of those two games then will square off with one another on Saturday at a time to be determined. The Turner/CBS broadcast team for the NCAA second and third eounds in Tucson will be Kevin Harlan, former NBA star Reggie Miller, Dan Bonner and Sam Ryan.

With one more victory this season, Kansas State will become just the 13th NCAA Division I women’s basketball program — and the second from the Big 12 Conference — to reach the 800-win plateau. K-State’s record in its 43-year history of women’s basketball stands at 799-474, for a winning percentage of .628.

The 2011 Kansas State baseball team will sign autographs along the concourse on the north end of Bramlage Coliseum, prior to Monday’s men’s basketball game against Baylor. The autograph session, which will begin at 6:30 p.m., will feature a Wildcat team that returns 18 letter-winners off a squad that finished third in the Big 12 — their highest league finish since 1990 — and advanced to their second straight NCAA regional last season.

The Kansas State women's basketball team will open Big 12 action in Bramlage Coliseum against Oklahoma State at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, and fans will have an opportunity to purchase tickets and concession items for $1. It will mark K-State's participation in the NCAA's "Pack the House" initiative.

Kansas State can stake claim as the Big 12 leader in all-sports graduation rate for an unprecedented fourth straight year, while five Wildcat teams garnered the league’s top spot in their respective sports, according to the latest graduation rate data released by the NCAA on Wednesday. Both graduation success rate and four-class average data were released by the NCAA, with Kansas State claiming top honors in both categories among its Big 12 counterparts.

So today we learned that KU cheats in football, too, and things of that nature. From that standpoint, they're also not very good, per se. Praise the Lord.

Looks like the NCAA finally might be growing a spine. This, on top of the USC thing, certainly seems to indicate a crackdown is beginning. I can't help but wonder if it's linked to the term of the new NCAA president, who took office about a year ago after Miles Brand died. Sometimes all you need is a new sheriff...

The NCAA plans to expand the men’s basketball tournament from 65 to 68 teams, beginning next year, and announced a new, $10.8 billion broadcasting deal with CBS and Turner Broadcasting on Thursday that will allow every game to be shown live for the first time.