MANHATTAN, Kan. — It's two different worlds right now for the Kansas State football team and many others around college football.
"When you go out and watch practice, it's fun," Wildcat coach Chris Klieman said. "They're having a blast out there. But at the end of the day, they do what a lot of us do — see the news, see the reports of some uncertainty of whether or not we're playing."
Sure enough, in the middle of Klieman's Zoom call Tuesday with reporters, the Big Ten canceled fall sports in 2020 with hopes of playing in the spring.
"One of the things we would like is some clarity to what they do," he said. "If it moves to the spring, what is the fall?"
Klieman then listed off several more questions as to how it would work, which is central to the college football dilemma in 2020 — way more questions than answers.
Still, Klieman believes now is the best time to play the college football season.
"For myself, the coaches, the players, our leadership council, they all want to stay safe," he said. "They want to do it the right way, and they want to play. They want to compete, especially these seniors that you only have so many opportunities to compete."
Klieman called being at K-State the best possible environment for his players and cited their COVID-19 testing results. The program had zero positive results after the last round of testing.
"We have great medical professionals that are on top of these guys and they're following the protocols," he said.
Many Big Ten players, coaches and athletic directors voiced their displeasure with the conference's decision to cancel fall sports, but the decision was made by school presidents.
Klieman said K-State's president, General Richard Myers, is all for a college football season.
"We'll see how that pans out with all the presidents of the Big 12 schools," Klieman said, "and as I told the guys today, 'We only can control what we can control.'"
