Why K-State turned down $30 million credit line from Big 12 private capital deal
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- K‑State declined for now and decided to wait on the $30 million offer.
- Taylor said financial investments can affect the university’s bond rating.
- K-State entered 2025–26 with a projected athletics budget of $119,281,177 and waited.
The Big 12 recently agreed to a private capital partnership with RedBird that will deliver $12.5 million to the conference and force all 16 of its members to make an important financial decision.
As part of the deal, every athletic department in the Big 12 now has access to a line of credit worth $30 million.
Each school must choose to opt-in to the credit line at an interest rate of about 10% or to reject the cash infusion and stand pat with their current budgets.
Given the added importance of money in college athletics at a time when every school is searching for new sources of revenue, it will be interesting to see how many Big 12 members choose to opt-in to the cash infusion.
Thirteen schools in the Big 12 have already publicly rejected the offer. Kansas State was one of them.
K-State athletic director Gene Taylor explained why the Wildcats weren’t interested in the credit line during an exclusive interview.
“Obviously, the investment in cash and capital would be great,” Taylor said. “But for us in athletics, anytime we take any sort of financial investment, it affects the university’s bond rating. So we have to make sure we’re on par with what they want us to do. And then, generally, the rate of which they were offering the capital investment (wasn’t attractive).”
Taylor said K-State could “probably get a better deal” on a $15 million loan from other sources. An interest rate of 10% was too high for the Wildcats to seriously consider the option.
“We decided to wait and see,” Taylor said. “It doesn’t mean we can’t change our mind, because Redbird has said we have time to consider that. For now, we just felt it wasn’t in our best interest to take on, because when you pay it back you lose your share of revenue. We thought we would rather keep the revenue and figure out other ways to find capital investments if we want to go down that path.”
The K-State athletic department entered the 2025-26 academic year with a projected budget of $119,281,177.
That number includes everything from scholarships to travel and revenue sharing with student-athletes.
Adding $30 million to the bottom line was an interesting thought. But it’s not something the Wildcats are entertaining at this time.
Still, Taylor thinks the arrangement with RedBird is a positive for the conference as a whole.
“We feel that the $12.5 million that we’ll get from the conference perspective will help us generate more sponsorship opportunities and infuse more cash back into us,” Taylor said. “Our annual distribution will be higher long term based on some of the partnerships that Redbird has with potential TV partners. It was a good long-term play.”
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 4:19 PM with the headline "Why K-State turned down $30 million credit line from Big 12 private capital deal."