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April showers bring May showers.
It's a typical slow news Thursday around here, but let's launch right into FOOTBAW.
K-State president Kirk Schulz is in the news. Specifically, he's part of the steering committee tasked with changing some of the more draconian NCAA regulations for the Big Five conferences. Contemplated changes include, among others: These potential changes are packaged with changes to the governance structure for the Big Five, including deregulating how schools spend the vast sums of money made off television contracts, and the veto power of non-Big Five schools in Division I. Notably, President Schulz also referenced possible changes to student transfer rules. To wit: "If we look at more permissive legislation within the Big Five (conferences), I suspect coaching change would be a key part of it," said Schulz, who wants athlete feedback on many issues, especially this one. In other news, the college football playoff weekly Top 25 rankings will be released every Tuesday from October 28 onwards. Query whether a true playoff system actually needs a poll of this sort. If the NFL can do it... Query also whether it is sacrilege to reference the No Fun League in a college football discussion. Speaking of the NFL, the Collegian's John Zetmeir opines on Collin Klein's trek north to play for the Montreal Alouettes, and how this is really a tryout for the NFL. Hopefully throwing to Chad HuitCinq will help Klein post the sort of gaudy passing numbers the NFL likes.
K-State favorite Brad Underwood is staying at Stephen F. Austin for the time being. You know what this means, right?
Yes, the Leti Romero saga is still in the news. This Sean Keeler piece was linked in yesterday's Slate, but I want to use my editorial privileges to put in my own two cents. In particular, I was struck by this comment from Curry Sexton, as quoted in the article: I feel like, in all situations, if someone goes to a school for a reason and that reason has disappeared, I wouldn't be against them being able to be released from their scholarship." I think that hits the nail right on the head. (Then again, when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail). This is not really about Romero, although she's the unfortunate athlete caught in the middle here. When a coach uses her strength of personality to bring a player to K-State, we applaud the coach for her recruiting acumen. Should the player feel a responsibility to the school instead of the coach she came to play for? It's not really about personal responsibility or loyalty. It's about choice, and how a student-athlete is deprived of that for reasons beyond her control. That said, it's difficult to endorse Keeler's position that athletes should be free to leave at any time for any reason without any consequence. The current rule requiring a transferring athlete to sit out a year is probably sufficient to limit the worst cases of school-shopping by athletes. So why not grant releases pro forma but with the caveat that the athlete must sit out an entire year?
The fireworks display planned for the final series at Tointon this season may be the only bang left in the BatCats season. K-State's seven-game road stand continues with a weekend trip to #13 TCU for a three-game series.
The K-State rowing team led the Academic All-Big 12 Rowing Team with 23 selections to the first team and four to the second team. K-State's honorees included two rowers with perfect 4.0 GPAs, among only seven total for the conference.
With an at-large selection to the NCAA Tournament, Petra Niedermayerova became the first K-State tennis player ever to make it to four singles championship tournaments. Currently ranked No. 51, she reached the Round of 16 in her previous two appearances. The draws will be announced on May 21.
Unless you live under a rock, you now know that Jameis Winston really likes crab legs, enough to be cited for shoplifting them at a Publix. What's a story if it doesn't spawn its own meme? The best Jameis Winston crab leg tweets, and the playlist for any trip to Publix. Finally, suck it, Avs! STATE OF HOCKEY! If you're not watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, you are an unwashed rube. Also, you're missing out on the best non-football sports action of 2014.