There has been K-State news in multiple sports this week, so let’s do a round of Rapid Fire. Here we GO!

-EA Sports College Football 25 is out. I liked playing the NCAA football video game back in the day, but I’m pretty sure I’ve outgrown video games. One of the interesting things to me is how the developers rated the players. Who would you guess is the highest-rated K-State player in the game? Avery Johnson? Dylan Edwards? Jacob Parrish? Nope. DJ Giddens with an “88.” I don’t think Giddens is K-State’s best or most talented player but he probably got the rating based on last season’s success.

-The Big 12 announced their pre-season all-Big 12 team, and no K-State players were selected. I would be willing to bet that K-State will have a few players on the post-season all-Big 12 team. Here is my pre-season watch list of K-State players most likely to be awarded a spot at the end of the season… Avery Johnson, Dylan Edwards, DJ Giddens, Jacob Parrish, Austin Moore, Uso Seumalo, Hadley Panzer, and Jayce Brown.

-Sean Snyder has a new job, hired to coach punters and kickers at Oklahoma State. It marks Snyder’s fourth job in four years. This guy jumps jobs as much as my buddy in high school, who worked at every fast-food restaurant in town at one point or another. Snyder has had an interesting career path since leaving K-State in 2019.

-K-State had four players selected in the Major League Baseball draft. Shortstop Kaelen Culpepper went in the first round to the Minnesota Twins with the 21st pick overall, pitcher Tyson Neighbors in the fourth round by the San Diego Padres, pitcher Jackson Wentworth in the fifth round to the Toronto Blue Jays, and second baseman Brady Day in the 10th round to the Philadelphia Phillies. It was the first time in K-State baseball history that they have had three players selected in the first five rounds, and having four picks in 10 rounds tied the program record set in 2011. Losing so much talent will make the 2025 season challenging. We will see if the BatCats are up to the challenge and can improve on the 2024 season.

-The K-State ticket office announced that the football game against Kansas on October 26th is nearing a sellout. This will likely be the most anticipated Sunflower Showdown game in history.

-K-State basketball alumni are once again competing in the TBT tournament for a million dollars. They have changed the team name to “Purple Reign.” Players include Jacob Pullen, Cartier Diarra, Justin Edwards, Dajuan Gordon, Stephen Hurt, Xavier Sneed, Kamau Stokes, and DJ Johnson. They are the number four seed in the Wichita region and play at 2:00 PM this Saturday, July 20th against number five seed Colorado. If this goes how it has in the past, Purple Reign will win a game or two and get eliminated. It would be nice if they could get Michael Beasley to play one of these years.

-T minus 44 days until football is here for Wildcat fans. As one of the few contenders picked to compete for the Big 12 championship, this is the most excitement I have seen before a season since maybe 2012. It’s gonna be a fun season!