The Kansas City Chiefs are only a week or so away from their first preseason game, and they still have no contract extension in place with quarterback Alex Smith.

For years, UMKC’s Bloch School struggled for dollars and recognition as it sought to join the nation’s elite business schools. That all changed in 2011 when UMKC vaulted above Harvard, MIT and Stanford in rankings for innovation management research, on the heels of Henry Bloch’s $32 million gift to the school for a state-of-the-art facility. But behind UMKC’s rise to No. 1, a trail of exaggerations, misstatements, selective science and nondisclosures raises questions about the validity of the rankings.

Smith, chef and owner at Extra Virgin and Michael Smith Restaurant in the Crossroads District, battles it out with Portland, Oregon chef and butcher Adam Sappington in the latest episode of “Knife Fight,” a high-pressure cooking competition on the Esquire Network.