Oklahoma State head coach Doug Meacham shakes hands with Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman after an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025, in Stillwater, Okla. (AP Photo/Mitch Alcala)

Kansas State athletic director Gene Taylor ripped the current state of college athletics for its role in driving Wildcats football coach Chris Klieman into retirement, claiming Wednesday that “there are people with really loud voices right now that are trying to keep this thing from being put in the right place.”

Taylor did not specify who he was talking about, but the longtime executive made it clear the “wild, wild west world” of name, image and likeness payments and the explosion of the transfer portal have caused near-irreparable harm to college sports.

“You just saw one of the greatest guys in this industry walk out of this room and retire from coaching, the business that he loves,” Taylor said, moments after the 58-year-old Klieman — who led Kansas State to a Big 12 championship during his seven years at the school — departed a news conference inside its football complex without taking questions.

“And what really pisses me off,” Taylor continued, “is that he's doing it because of where we are in this industry. If we don't get this thing under control, more really, really good guys like Chris Klieman are going to walk away from this business.”

Klieman did not specifically say that NIL, the transfer portal and related issues played a role in his decision. But many coaches have retired for those reasons, including Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright and Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett, both of whom have lamented the way they think greed has taken over college athletics.

Taylor and Klieman met Monday, two days after the Wildcats beat Colorado to finish 6-6 and qualify for a bowl game. They discussed his departure during the meeting, and Klieman pondered it for 48 hours before making his final decision Wednesday morning.

At that point, Taylor dashed off a text message to “my colleagues in the Big 12.”

“I said, ‘Coach Klieman, one of the best in the business, just left, and here’s why,'” Taylor said. “And I got a ‘thumbs-up’ from just about everybody in the conference. There are so many moving parts right now, and so many things out there that aren't accurate, and there are people with really loud voices right now that are trying to keep this thing from being put in the right place."

“We all have to come together and speak from the same sheet of music,” he continued, “and right now that's not quite happening, and there are some pretty loud voices out there that are trying to do some things that aren't in the best interest of the industry.”

Coincidentally on Wednesday, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives decided to pull a bill — called the SCORE Act — that had been scheduled for a final vote that the NCAA and Division I conferences have portrayed as placing into law rules created by a multibillion-dollar lawsuit settlement that allowed college athletes to be paid.

The White House and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee support the bill, with the White House saying “action is necessary to provide the stability, fairness and balance that will protect student-athletes and preserve collegiate athletic opportunities.”

One of the bill's critics, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., has co-sponsored a competing bill, and she called the battle over the SCORE Act “a David and Goliath fight” in which the two biggest conferences, the SEC and Big Ten, would end up with most of the power.

“We have to come together and run the business as equally as we possibly can,” Taylor said Wednesday, “and right now, that's not the case. People are ignoring the settlement. They're doing things outside of the settlement. And we have to get it under control.”

The 68-year-old Taylor, who recently purchased a home in Arizona, admitted that he also has considered retirement. One of the big reasons for sticking around is that Taylor wants to be part of the solution when it comes to straightening out college sports.

“It really hurts me that guys like Chris Klieman are leaving because what they came into the business for is different," he said. “I want to make sure that because of where I am on my experience, I have a chance to sit on some committees now, that I can help make some decisions as an industry that will get us in a place that we'll be better off.”

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