SLATE: K-State in the Spotlight at Big 12 Media Days

We’ll keep the Slate brief this morning, since you’ll all be skipping over it to read Media Day coverage anyway. Chris Klieman’s press conference begins at 11:50, and we will have a recap as soon as we can. The Big 12 site has a full schedule of the days events here.

So, obviously, football is the main focus. Yesterday BracketCat started it off with a profile of No. 47, Redshirt Senior Fullback Luke Sowa, who bears in my (probably lone) opinion, the best name on the entire roster.

Sowa’s fellow backfield mate Senior running back James Gilbert has been named to the Maxwell Award watch list. The Ball State transfer is one of 80 players nationally named to the list, yet somehow is only the 8th Wildcat ever to make the cut.

Yesterday, on the first day of the Big 12’s football media event, league commissioner Bob Bowlsby expounded on all the big league issues, including the arrival of new coaches and potential expansion of both the conference and the college playoff system. He also announced that the league distributed $38.8 million to each of its member schools in 2018-2019, a 6% increase from the previous year.

Also at media days, TCU Coach Gary Patterson had high praise for K-State transfer quarterback Alex Delton. With very few healthy quarterbacks on the roster, Patterson says Delton “saved” spring practices for the Horned Frogs. We just want to know how in the world a quarterback transferring from K-State arrived in Fort Worth healthy. Am I right?

Finally, after the retirement gala in his honor, Bill Snyder admitted he’s still not 100% at-ease with retirement. But don’t expect to see him embarking on a Saturday afternoon television job anytime soon.

In non-football news, K-State Sports Extra featured rising track and field star Aaron Booth, who won a gold medal for New Zealand at the World University Game with a personal-best 7,827 points in the decathlon.

The boys of summer are wrapping up league play before returning to school, and kstatesports.com chronicles their progress on diamonds around the country. Seniors Casey Ford (Rockford Rivets) and Luke Hauswirth (Midwest Nationals) continue to dominate on the mound, while junior Jordon Maxson is slashing .326/.405/.553 with three triples, six home runs and 36 RBI in 33 games for the St. Joseph Mustangs.