Another thing that hurts K-State is the fact that K-State isn't part of the American Association of Universities (AAU). The AAU consists of 61 universities (prestigious schools like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.). The Big 10 requires their members to be a part of the AAU, and the Pac 10 is pretty selective about academic standards as well. The tough part for K-State is that they really don't offer anything academically or athletically, and even less when it comes to TV sets. KU at least has a nationally recognized basketball program, and is a part of the AAU. KU also makes nearly twice as much as K-State in athletic revenue, and has almost three times as many TV sets in the KC area.
I just hope that if the Pac 10/Big 12 realignment does go down, KU isn't forced to bring K-State with us. If so, KU might be on the outside looking in as well.
As always Ben only looks at one year, 2 years ago when Lew counted a bunch of capital contributions as revenue (things that some schools don't do) . . . the next fiscal year, ku's gross revenues dropped dramatically, and their net revenues dropped by 2/3's. Right now, ku athletics is operating in the red according to Lew Perkins. If ku were to have "nearly twice as much" athletic revenue than K-State, ku's revenue would have be nearly $100 million dollars . . . they finished at $70 million last year, and another $30 million ain't walkin into Lew's office anytime soon. As always Ben hyper embellishes reality.
In addition, the Pac-10 isn't looking at ku in anything even close to awe from an academic perspective. In fact, from an extramural research funding perspective I suspect that ku is at or near the bottom of the AAU schools. They're not even near the top of the Big 12 in extramural research funding, and they need kumed's numbers to surpass K-State's extramural research funding. When I looked at ku's extramural research numbers compared to the Big 10 schools they would have been next to last or dead last in the Big 10 and it wasn't even close compared to the top Big 10 schools in extramural research funding.