This ain’t the college sports landscape your grandfather knew. Hell, this isn’t even the era your father grew up with. College sports aren’t about competition anymore. Not that they have been for the last decade-plus, but at least we could squint and pretend the bagmen hanging out behind the bench weren’t there. Jerome Tang getting fired for cause by Kansas State for calling out an atrocious basketball team was a “mask off” moment for profit-generating college sports.
The players get their money. And they aren’t beholden to anyone.
Shame on you, Kansas State.
Someone page Hannah Waddingham; we need her again.
Wednesday evening, Kansas State lost by 29 points at home to Cincinnati.
After the game, Kansas State head coach Jerome Tang called the defeat “embarrassing” and said the “dudes” in his locker room “do not deserve to wear this uniform.”
Sunday evening, Kansas State fired Tang for cause, citing language in his contract that forbade activity that brings “public disrepute, embarrassment, [or] ridicule” to the university.
The firing isn’t a surprise, nor is it even arguable. Tang made the Elite Eight in 2023, but hasn’t posted a winning record in Big 12 play since, and has lost 16 of his last 19 conference games. Saturday’s loss to Houston was K-State’s 11th loss in 12 league games this season. Tang wasn’t going to get a fifth season.
But using his postgame presser as grounds to skirt around the nearly $19 million left on his contract is bush league behavior.
It won’t hold up in court. But more important than that, it sends a horrific message to the rest of college basketball.
“I’m embarrassed for the university. I’m embarrassed for our fans, the student section. It is ridiculous,” Tang said Wednesday night.
K-State didn’t like that messaging?
A report from CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander last April claimed that 10 college basketball programs were spending upwards of $10 million on their rosters for this season. One tier below that group, according to Norlander, was a group of more than a dozen schools that had already spent or planned to spend more than $8 million on their rosters. Kansas State belonged in that second tier, alongside Florida, the reigning national champion.
Eight Wildcats have averaged at least 15 minutes per game in their appearances for the team this season. Just 3 of those 8 were on the team last year. The other 5 are, for all intents and purposes, hired guns. The Wildcats’ top 2 scorers were not on the team last season.
Tang puts the group together, and Tang deserves blame if and when it doesn’t work. Kansas State ranks 101st in KenPom. Things have not worked.
But college athletes in profit-producing sports like football and basketball are paid professionals now. If they want the benefits that come with contracts, they no longer get to hide behind the shield of amateurism when they don’t perform.
Kansas State’s team hasn’t worked. The players get blame for that, too. And in the midst of an 11th loss in 12 games, the head coach should have the agency to speak honestly.
My question immediately after hearing of Tang’s public lambasting was a simple one: Which side would the school back? In trying to fire Tang for cause, the school sent a message that the roster is above public criticism.
Good luck convincing another coach to join the circus.
“I am deeply disappointed with the university’s decision and strongly disagree with the characterization of my termination,” Tang said in a statement after his dismissal, per CBS insider Jon Rothstein. “I have always acted with integrity and faithfully fulfilled my responsibilities as head coach.”
His responsibility as head coach includes winning basketball games. But an old friend would often tell me, “At the end of the day, it’s more about the Jimmies and Joes than the Xs and Os.” Kansas State doesn’t have a single player inside the Top 200 of EvanMiya’s player ratings.
K-State took player names off their jersey backs for Saturday’s loss to Houston. Tang was clearly trying to send a message to his locker room about their play. Was it the right way to send that message? Debatable. Again, no one is saying Tang didn’t deserve to be fired.
However, the athletic department’s posturing is laughable.
“These dudes got to have some pride,” Tang said at after the Cincinnati game. “It means something to wear a K-State uniform. It means something to put on this purple.”
That kind of statement, K-State says, brings ridicule to the university.
Sure.
When schools behave this way, it encourages more. Kansas State is now a place where you can secure a bag just by showing up. Surely that kind of reputation is more embarrassing than “it means something to put on this purple.”
But in the kind of lawless hellscape college athletics currently finds itself trapped in, schools have convinced themselves that the recruiting pitch is all that matters. Coaches are replaceable. Players are commodities. This is true in professional sports, of course, but could you imagine the Golden State Warriors firing Steve Kerr and then refusing to pay him for calling out a missed defensive rotation? Responsibility comes with the money.
When that isn’t the case, why should we care?
When coaches can’t hold players to a standard, why should we care?
When it’s about protecting the investment, not the brand, the product ceases to matter, and the soul disapparates.
Funny enough, Kansas State actually embarrassed itself by the way it chose to handle Tang’s dismissal.
“If K-State’s President and AD really think the school was embarrassed by recent events, that’s nothing compared to the embarrassment that both of them are about to experience,” prominent attorney Tom Mars, who Tang has reportedly retained to represent him in a suit against the school, said in a statement to ESPN.
Welcome to modern college athletics, where the battles in the courtroom are more entertaining than the ones on the court.
What a joke.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
