It’s about to get ugly between K-State and Jerome Tang. 

K-State fired Tang yesterday and labeled it a for-cause termination. The on-court performance made a change feel inevitable. The twist is the money: K-State believes it has grounds to reduce, or possibly avoid, the $18.7 million buyout.

Here’s what Wildcats AD Gene Taylor says the case is built on.

Tang’s comments about players not deserving to wear the uniform did turn into a national embarrassment for the school. And there is this language in his contract, per the Manhattan Mercury:

In the ninth clause in that section, the contract states that the coach must be “conducting themself at all times in a manner consistent with the position of head coach, an instructor of student-athletes, and an ambassador and representative of K-State Athletics and the university.”

It also states that Tang “shall not engage in any behavior, actions, or activities that subjects coach, K-State Athletics, or the university to public disrepute, embarrassment, ridicule, or scandal.”

Behind the scenes, I think there’s much more to K-State’s case than just one press conference, and they’re willing to take the publicity hit to keep that under wraps.

It’s well-documented how much drama has surrounded K-State’s basketball program under Tang.

He went to war with the university president over murky details surrounding Nae’Qwan Tomlin’s dismissal and publicly accused Iowa State head coach TJ Otzelberger of filming K-State team huddles, subjecting the program to plenty of “public disrepute, embarrassment, and ridicule” along the way—much of it from the same media voices currently cheerleading the campaign to get Tang all of his money.

This season has been filled with mysterious player absences and combative press conferences, culminating in last Wednesday’s “don’t deserve to wear the jersey” rant.

And that’s only the overtly public drama.

I can assure you, the “for cause” case is not simply about what happened after the Cincinnati loss.

Now, that doesn’t make it a slam-dunk for the Wildcats. Far from it. But this isn’t about K-State saving all $18.7 million.  

It’s about ending this back-and-forth the way they usually end: a settlement that knocks the buyout down.

This is a fairly common tactic for schools facing a massive buyout and a difficult, failing head coach. 

We’ve seen versions of this play out frequently. Texas Tech settled a $7.5 million buyout with Mark Adams for $4.1 million before hiring Grant McCasland. St. John’s settled with Mike Anderson after firing him for cause, with terms not publicly disclosed. 

The point is the same: “for cause” is often the leverage used to negotiate a lower number.

Tang isn’t going down without a fight, though. 

I understand the national uproar about this. K-State has been a national punching bag for trying to duck out of a ridiculous buyout that should never have been offered in the first place. 

The optics are terrible, and I generally agree that schools should feel the pain for the contracts they hand out. But if you’re K-State, it’s still worth taking the PR hit to see if there’s a real path to paying less.

It’s a slow part of the sports calendar, which is why every national pundit is helicoptering in to get their takes off. It’s an easy, popular stance: dunk on schools spending irresponsibly in the wild west era of college sports.

Former coaches working in media also have a vested interest in protecting members of the coaching fraternity. They can’t allow this type of precedent to be set. I get it.

K-State just needs to wait it out a couple of days, and the outrage cycle moves on. Present your evidence, make your case, and see if it’s enough to land on a lower settlement number.

The Wildcats may still be out $18.7 million, though I’d predict it will be at least 25% lower than that. They’ll be fine either way.

I strongly disagree with the idea that this will scare coaches away from taking the job. Do we really think people driven enough to be high-major coaches are sitting around thinking about what happens if they fail in three years?

They’re not wired like that. 

I can also confidently say that there has been plenty of interest in the K-State job from good mid-major coaches. 

Big 12 coaches recently voted the Wildcats’ head coaching job right in the middle of the league, for what it’s worth. 

Each of the last three coaches K-State has had (Frank Martin, Bruce Weber, and Jerome Tang) made an Elite Eight. Weber won two Big 12 championships. This is a job you can win at. 

Even if you think all that matters anymore is NIL support, how many college basketball programs equipped their coach with more NIL support than K-State the last two seasons?

So is a coach really passing on a job in the best league in the country, where you can reach a regional final and where NIL support can be top-tier, because of a messy buyout dispute with the previous coach?

St. John’s and Texas Tech, the schools I mentioned above, that settled after firing for cause, went on to hire Rick Pitino and Grant McCasland.

K-State will be fine. 

Watch out for Utah State head coach Jerrod Calhoun and Creighton Head Coach in Waiting (and former High Point head coach) Alan Huss as early candidates for the job.

What You Need to Know

• In a brutal blow for college basketball fans everywhere, BYU’s Richie Saunders tore his ACL and is out for the season. 

• Here’s some context on how rough this season has been injury-wise for BYU. 

• A Big 12 team is the first team out of the NCAA tournament field in Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology. 

• BYU star wide receiver Parker Kingston has been kicked out of school at BYU and off the football team after his arrest on a rape charge. 

• If you needed any more reason to watch Big 12 basketball this month, check out these eye-popping numbers.  

• The Big Ten proposed a 24-team playoff that would have included five Big 12 teams. Here’s a look at the field.

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