Kansas State suspends band director for Kansas game, will pay $5K fine
We all saw this coming. Band director claims it was just the Star Trek Enterprise. Info courtesy of CBS Sports:
Kansas State announced self-imposed sanctions for the school and its marching band as a result of the controversial halftime show performance on Saturday.
The penalties imposed by Kansas State:
1. A self-imposed $5,000 fine to be paid to the Big 12 for violation of league sportsmanship policy
2. A single-game suspension for the university director of bands. The suspension will take place for the game against Kansas on Nov. 28.
3. Prior approval for all content in the band's halftime shows by representatives of the Office of Student Life and the Athletic Department.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^
September 8th, 2015 at 4:55 PM ^
When he was hired, he promised to go where to Band Director has gone before!
September 8th, 2015 at 2:14 PM ^
Worth it.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^
And I'll bet some wealthy alum pays that fine for him.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:15 PM ^
I am surprised he didn't get fired. They must think it was too funny to fire him over.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:18 PM ^
September 8th, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^
Not being fully aware usually ends up with a firing.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:55 PM ^
Yeah, I thought someone would get fired. Maybe people still have a sense of humor in Kansas.
September 8th, 2015 at 3:29 PM ^
This never gets old and is always hilarious, particularly after the first 300 times.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^
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September 8th, 2015 at 2:22 PM ^
If I could upvote you more than once, I would. Well done, sir.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:37 PM ^
There is just no way you're 13.
September 8th, 2015 at 3:06 PM ^
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September 9th, 2015 at 12:56 AM ^
We've ruined him. When his mom finds out about this hoo boy.
September 8th, 2015 at 3:57 PM ^
That director really got shafted.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:16 PM ^
So many people predicted that this would happen in the original thread on this. Crazy.
But it looked like the enterprise?
September 8th, 2015 at 3:24 PM ^
I'm predicting that next week's show will be a bird attacking a koala
September 8th, 2015 at 2:19 PM ^
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September 8th, 2015 at 2:57 PM ^
Pathetic? This was like the best thing that happened all weekend... The only thing that could have made it better is if it was Charlie Weis' member being jammed down that jayhawk's beak...
Lighten up a touch ;)
September 8th, 2015 at 5:27 PM ^
I am plenty lightened
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September 8th, 2015 at 7:36 PM ^
Okay, whew!
September 8th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^
What is the significance of suspending a band director? Also, I am still confused. Wasn't the game against South Dakota? I don't understand why anyone really cares that much. I guess the starship enterprise alibi was pretty weak—next time they should come up with a more convincing cover story.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^
but that kid turned out just fine...
September 8th, 2015 at 4:52 PM ^
BAM! Thread should have been locked after the photo of Captain Cameltoe!
September 9th, 2015 at 11:31 AM ^
EGJ you consistently provide great commentary. You are an asset to this blog and to my life.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:21 PM ^
So if they're suspending and fining him I guess that means they didn't buy his story.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:27 PM ^
September 8th, 2015 at 8:39 PM ^
On paper it looked okay, the execution was Hokish.
And Captain Kirk has my back.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/09/william-shatner-defends-kansas-states-o…
September 9th, 2015 at 11:33 AM ^
Billy Shatner is a national treasure.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:28 PM ^
This whole thing is just so damn weird.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:32 PM ^
I am curious about your take, Bando. Do you think the image with the marching design has credibility? (https://twitter.com/SBNationCFB/status/640523627687997440/photo/1?ref_s…) Is it possible this was an honest mistake?
September 8th, 2015 at 3:06 PM ^
I'm about 100% sure this is a combination of three things:
1. The guy simply didn't realize how it would look on the field. "Oh, hey, we're doing a Star Trek show. Let's have it attack a Jayhawk." Innocent enough, and let's face it, rival jokes get an easy laugh. The MMB does it all the time.
2. The formation didn't look that great in execution--it happens.
3. The director wasn't even thinking about why/how things go viral, because there really wasn't much there to go viral. It was a movie show, which about a hundred other bands were doing that day in stadiums across the country. He probably thought, and probably with reason, that they'd perform the show and people would watch, clap, and never think about it again.
Was this whole thing malicious or intended to be innuendo? I'm guessing absolutely not. Just an innocent mistake blown way, way out of proportion.
I say this as someone who was in a college marching band, though never really got or liked marching band culture outside Michigan and who would never have been in a college marching band that wasn't the MMB...
Band is weird, man.
September 8th, 2015 at 3:51 PM ^
is just a starship.
September 8th, 2015 at 5:41 PM ^
As anyone who was in a marching band will tell you, all the charts go to hell once you are on the field. Looking at that chart, I suspect they really meant to make the Enterprise and just failed miserably at it. It's not that hard to screw up a formation, especially because kids get nervous in front of a crowd. Especially in the first game of the season. I still remember the Notre Dame show my senior year of MMB where I spent as much time yelling at people in my section to get alignment right as I did playing my instrument because early in the season it just isn't coming naturally to everyone yet.
The other thing to think about is that if you take any static picture of the band, who knows what it is going to look like? I'd have to see the entire sequence on video to know if they did it intentionally. Any one static frame could look really bad while the entire sequence in video might not look bad at all.
September 9th, 2015 at 12:23 AM ^
I'm pretty much 100% sure they are guilty of nothing except for being a bad marching band.
That is clearly just a poorly done formation. No one was making a penis on the field. This isn't the Stanford band. They were trying to make the Enterprise and they did a piss-poor job of it.
Perhaps they shouldn't do any formations where stuff goes near the mouth of their rivals mascot, just to be safe, but this all seems like a bunch of outrage over nothing. I can't believe the school suspended the director and is paying a fine over this. Have some self-respect and a little backbone. Good grief. Apologies for being political, but people are such politically correct losers these days.
September 8th, 2015 at 8:26 PM ^
I'm about 99% sure that was a penis. Maybe the band director didn't know, but whoever wrote the drill probably did. Why would the enterprise fly into the jayhawk's mouth? That's not how spaceships/aircrafts attack, it's not a kamikaze.
September 9th, 2015 at 12:25 AM ^
How do you want a spaceship that is being done by a MARCHING BAND to attack? It's not like the band can easily simulate phasors or something. I suppose they could fire the Sousaphones at something.
September 8th, 2015 at 9:14 PM ^
The video live isn't that bad. It is the animated gifs of the misshapen saucer dection going in and out of the mouth that made it look so naughty.
Maybe the kids muddled the shape on purpose. But based on the rest of the formations they don't do a great job of keeping spacing.
I do know when my HS director was in the OSUMB, Paul Droste had been critical of the band's precision in the week leading up to their first show, saying they looked like shit. In particular he criticized the squad leaders for not taking the initative and told them to get it fixed. The squad leaders got together and got it fixed, but in the process decided to show Droste they did have initative. They actually worked it out in the parking lot of my HS which isn't far from campus and had a practice field painted on the blacktop. The last practice before The Game they executed a perfect script Shit. Yes, band is weird.
September 9th, 2015 at 2:08 AM ^
"Muddling the formation on purpose" would require about a hundred students rehearsing it on their own to make something that didn't look like it was supposed to. Never gonna happen. Come on now.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:02 PM ^
My script Shit example shows it is possible. That took them a while to get ready, but that is also a more complicated change. As I said above though their spavcing is sloopy to begin with so I think it is execution not malice.
September 8th, 2015 at 11:33 PM ^
quite a decent guy, even for an OSU MB alum. 100% this was unintentional and due to a poor execution, from all evidence. Get his take on this radio interview - link.
September 9th, 2015 at 1:24 AM ^
You said "Blown"...
September 8th, 2015 at 2:33 PM ^
That's what she said.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:29 PM ^
another small nail in the coffin of the collective sense of humor of this country.
THAT is funny and always will be and to me completely keeping with the spirit of college rivalries and poking fun at each other.....too bad everyone is so hyper-over-sensitive these days.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:35 PM ^
I think everyone still had a good laugh; I didn't see or read any outrage (but I probably missed it). 5K kinda seems like a token CYA fine.
September 8th, 2015 at 2:56 PM ^
$5k for a band director isn't chicken feed, but there may be some way to pay it without paying it....so to speak.
Better KSU offers a statement indicating that any resemblance of the intended Enterprise to anything other than the Enterprise was purely coincidental and our apogolizies for any interpretation that might have been deemed offensive. The software used for the show is under review and the process for selecting band formations has been amended to prevent any future occurences.
In my perfect world, they would say:
KSU apologizes for Saturday's band formation that included one in particular that was incorrectly executed and therefore perceived by many as offensive. An error in technology and process resulted in a formation that was indeed the U.S.S Enterprise, however it was the intention that the formation depict a bag of U.S.S. Enterprises, to be publicly ingested by the corresponding JayHawk formation. The administration is aware of the issue and has fined and suspended the band director and has amended internal processes to be sure that in the future, the JayHawk will consume the entire bag of U.S.S. Enterprises. We apologize to any who were offended by there being only a single U.S.S. Enterprise.
I know...not possible....but fun to think about a world where it is........
I only wish I had been there when they were practicing it, as it must have been a total laugh.
September 8th, 2015 at 3:03 PM ^
5K is a token fine to them.