Kansas sports pages and radio and television sports programs this week have been filled with stories about Jason Bennett, the 7-foot, 3-inch Florida high school basketball player who has committed to attend Kansas State University.

According to various reports, he isn’t just any basketball player, but supposedly the 23rd best high school player in the country. His decision to become a Kansas State student is expected to transform the Wildcats from an average basketball team to one that will have the potential to become a national champion.

Headlines are big and bold announcing the young man’s decision.

Kansas State made news again last month by hiring one of the nation’s best and most controversial college basketball coaches, Bob Huggins, who compiled an excellent record at the University of Cincinnati. But that success came with a price; Huggins has been accused of not paying enough attention to his players’ academic progress.

When KSU officials announced that they hired Huggins to lead their basketball program, sports editors and radio and TV talk show hosts couldn’t stop talking about the pros and cons of this hiring. There was no question, however, that as long as Huggins was coaching at KSU, he would attract good players and the Wildcats would have a good basketball team.

None of this is meant to be critical or to knock Kansas State officials. They wanted to improve their basketball program, they hired a coach with a winning record and the coach, in turn, has quickly attracted one of the nation’s most talented high school players.

So far, Kansas State’s plan is paying dividends.

Could the plan to elevate their basketball program be used by universities to elevate their academic and research programs?

While the news was happening at KSU, more than 20,000 people from throughout the country, as well as from throughout the world, were gathered in Chicago for BIO 2006. Every state in the nation, and many countries from around the world, were represented with pavilions touting the assets and incentives they are offering to attract scientists and bioscience-related research business and industry.

It was a most impressive gathering and it pointed out the importance these states and nations place on being able to attract brilliant researchers, chemists, entrepreneurs, biologists, chemical engineers and bioscience companies. Attracting such people likely would attract other superior researchers, new business and added dollars, too.

Many of the nation’s top universities had pavilions at BIO 2006 at Chicago’s McCormick Place exhibition hall. They were outlining their excellence within the bioscience field and states were advertising their many assets and financial assistance they can offer to business and industry that decide to build a plant or move into an existing facility.

As one company explained, “Life sciences: A changing prescription. From a world that is struggling to meet the escalating health problems of an aging population, the threat of bioterrorism and pandemics to one that treats the sick more personally, emphasizes wellness by preventing or delaying the onset of disease, and makes our world more secure.

“From genomics, proteomics, and systems biology to a better understanding of how our biological systems really work taking us on to personalized, predictive and preventive medicine :”

This is what the 20,000-plus attendees and exhibitors were all about.

It was both interesting as well as disturbing to be reading the hype and attention given to a 7-foot, 3-inch basketball player who announced he was going to go to school in Kansas compared with the interest in Kansas, as well as most every other state aside from Illinois, to the very serious business being discussed and studied at BIO 2006.

When has any teacher, researcher, dean or chancellor at a Kansas university received anywhere near the attention and publicity a 7-foot, 3-inch basketball player received this week? Has any announcement about a new business, new industry or scientific effort taking place in Kansas ever received the headlines and attention that athletes receive?

What kind of a welcome would a world-class chemist or biologist receive were he or she to decide to “commit” to Kansas University, KSU or Wichita State University? Would the university, or the media, come close to saying how much this would mean compared with what is said about an all-star basketball player or a No. 1 quarterback coming to a Kansas school?

University athletic departments and football and basketball coaches are to be applauded when they attract some of the best players, but why don’t universities, and the media, make more out of the acquisition of world-class teachers, researchers and scientists?

On the other hand, have KU, KSU or WSU ever attracted the nation’s 23rd ranked biochemist, or the country’s 14th ranked chemical engineer or perhaps the 37th ranked biologist?

If we have some of the nation’s best, why not brag about it? And if a nationally ranked researcher decides to leave his or her position elsewhere in the country to “transfer” to a Kansas school, why not use that news to point out the excellence of the school or department?

If an outstanding coach is likely to attract outstanding players, wouldn’t the same logic apply to outstanding chancellors, deans and department heads attracting truly outstanding associates and students?

It is easy to fault all the fuss athletes and coaches receive, but maybe those on the academic side of the picture should be a little more willing to play the same game.

These days, there doesn’t seem to be anything more important than what is going on in the bioscience field.

The battles and competition within the bioscience field are intense and hopefully the public will begin to realize that the academic excellence of a university should be the most important issue facing these schools.

School leaders need to do a better job of selling this story at statehouses throughout the country. Legislators must understand the importance to their state of having outstanding researchers as well as having leaders at their institutions of higher learning who can lead and inspire.

Otherwise, those states where this favorable condition does exist are going to pass by those that are willing to merely tread water or float with the tide.

Kansas as a whole needs to get just as excited about attracting world-class researchers, scientists, deans and chancellors as it does about attracting 7-foot, 3-inch basketball players.