KSU plight will get worse before better

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Dog gone it, Dr. Jon Wefald, you were so close.

Just weeks before out-going Kansas State University President Jon Wefald made his way into retirement bliss, his legacy, the one he spent many years building and the last three struggling to uphold, is gone.

It’s gone, Jon.  Done.  Over. Ka-put. 

He will forever be thought of not as one of the most instrumental pieces to one of the greatest rebirths of a collegiate institution in history, but a man who, at best, appears to have held on too long, finally done in by blind loyalty to an underhanded individual he respected enough to hand over the keys to the purple and silver moneymaking machine.

At worst?  Well, that’s something to be determined – something to be sorted out as details emerge regarding Wefald’s business-dealing knowledge of his “longtime friend” and blunder twin Bob Krause, who was fired by Wefald on Wednesday from his golden parachute of a position as economic development director of K-State’s Olathe, Kan. campus.

Krause was fired because he, as his (former?) friends Wefald and former interim athletics director Jim Epps contend in a written statement released Wednesday, delved covertly into an under-the-table buyout agreement with former head football coach Ron Prince.

A buyout of $1.2 million was announced when Prince was fired on Nov. 5.  With this “secret” deal signed by Krause and Prince, the former coach will receive $3.2 million more.  As it stands now, however, the new administrative tandem of President Kirk Schulz and athletic director John Currie won’t have to worry about it up front.  The payments don’t start until 2015, when Prince is scheduled to make $800,000 then and in 2016.  K-State gets another fundraising break until 2020, when a final payment of $1.2 million is due Prince.

Is it a possibility that Krause acted completely alone? Sure it is.  Did being out-powered in the 12^th hour by Wefald in his attempt to land TCU’s Gary Patterson stir him to look for a payback?  Maybe, but that’s diving off the conspiracy deep end.

The acting alone theory has some merit as even family is pulling away and protecting itself from Krause.

That said, you will not convince me that Wefald knew absolutely nothing.  He made an art of being uncomfortably involved in everything athletics related – to the point of it becoming a running joke.  It was as if Wefald fancied himself as the AD, but since he couldn’t hold both titles, he just put a body in the chair.

Were the two in tune?  I believe it is only a matter of time before details emerge that will paint a more-knowing Wefald than has been let on thus far.

The pending future payments to Prince’s fake In Pursuit of Perfection, LLC are only the beginning. 

It won’t of course, but when Wefald is replaced, it should mark the end of this mess because Kansas State, from the new administration to the guy who can afford his one ticket to one game a year, needs to move into its new era as quickly as possible.

That includes dealing with and then forgetting Jon Wefald and Bob Krause.

But, how do you expect a fan base to forget two decades, two really successful decades, overnight, when it was their dollars that funded the turnaround?

The new administration needs and deserves that shot, but the reality is people in this part of the country scar deep.  K-State supporters won’t care for a long while who actually makes up the "athletic department."  They will remember the "athletic department’s" blatant misuse of their hard-earned donations – dollars that could have gone toward a new vehicle, a vacation, retirement or a few more nights of good sleep during weekday game nights. 

The department budget is in the red, and the charge given to new athletic director Currie is to get money into the Ahearn Fund.

Who has the confidence to write that check right now?

Regardless, forget money for now.  How is Currie and company going to repair the damage?  This isn’t a matter of calming the waters as Bill Snyder stated when he announced his return.  This is like trying to stop a tsunami with sandbags. 

It may cost a lot of innocent people their jobs, but short of hiring a whole new staff, I’m not sure it’s possible to regain the people’s monetary trust.

Folks want answers. The new regime has promised transparency, though I’m not sure it knew how fast that promise may have to be fulfilled. 

And, I’m not sure anybody from either the administrative or fan side really wants the answers that may come.

Not after Wednesday’s news.

Send your comments to curtiskitchen@810whb.com.