San Antonio ? Kansas State coach Ron Prince and his players who attended Big 12 media days Wednesday planned to make a pit stop before heading back to Manhattan.

It was to the Alamodome, just a mile or so from the St. Anthony Hotel. The Big 12 championship game will be played there for the first time since 1999 on Dec. 1.

“We’ve made it very clear that, as a team, our goal is to play in there December 1st,” Prince said. “So we’d like to be able to go back and report to the rest of the team on exactly what the facility looks like and some of the sidelines, etc.”

It worked last year for Nebraska. The members of the Huskers went to see Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., during media days and ended up going back to play in the 2006 league championship game.

Prince said his areas of concern heading into this season were the offensive line and the kicking game, though many key parts return from a 7-6 team that played in the Texas Bowl.

“By a long stretch, we didn’t feel like we accomplished all of our goals a year ago,” Prince said. “We thought we had a nice season. : But we really felt like we had a lot of things we were going to improve on if we’re going to take the next step.”

¢Facility chatter: Kansas University’s $31 million football facility adjacent to Memorial Stadium continues to get worked on, but the Jayhawks hardly are the only school doing any digging.

Colorado coach Dan Hawkins said an indoor facility is being built for his team. Missouri just finished a $16 million expansion project on its facility, and Texas completed the expansion of its stadium in time for this season.

Baylor, meanwhile, is spending $34 million to move its football operations to campus. The groundbreaking ceremony was in May.

¢Long road back: Oklahoma State wide receiver Artrell Woods continues to battle back from a devastating back injury suffered while lifting weights this summer.

Woods had surgery after suffering a fracture dislocation of vertebrae and an incomplete spinal cord injury. He’s out for the season, and his career may be in doubt.

“When there’s a back injury involved, only time will tell,” coach Mike Gundy said. “He has a long road ahead of him.”

¢Quote of the day: “Vince is a jokester, like farting in the huddles. That was to loosen things up.” – Texas wide receiver Limas Sweed, on the differences in leadership between former quarterback Vince Young and current QB Colt McCoy.