MANHATTAN- Kansas State football coach Bill Snyder apologized Saturday night for endorsing Senator Pat Roberts for re-election in a television advertisement.

The commercial includes video of Snyder being asked who he will support in the U.S. Senate race, and he responds that it will be his good friend Pat Roberts. In the video Snyder also said, “Pat’s a dear friend and a great friend of the State of Kansas. I care about him a great deal. I think his track record speaks for itself.  He is as good as it gets for the State of Kansas. He is an extremely hard worker. He’s an honest individual. I’m certainly going to vote for my friend Pat. He genuinely cares for the people of the State of Kansas.”

During his postgame press conference after the 48-14 Kansas State win over Oklahoma State, Snyder was asked about the television commercial. “I made a mistake. I’m not going to delve into exactly how everything happened, but I made a mistake and I’ve embarrassed our university. That’s my responsibility. That was my error.” Snyder also added, “That’s my fault. Nobody else’s.”

Later in the press conference the coach was questioned on the topic further, and stated bluntly that he had already spoken about the issue. He apologized again, said that he had made a mistake, had hurt the University, and that he accepted responsibility for it.

When asked if he wanted the television ad removed by the Roberts campaign Snyder responded in the affirmative by saying “yes” two times.

According to media reports K-State President Kirk Schulz told colleagues in an email on Friday that the Roberts campaign refused a request by University officials  to have the ad removed, that Snyder had been unaware the video footage was going to be used in such a fashion, and was apologetic for the issues that resulted. But the Roberts campaign disagreed on whether they had been contacted by the University. The email was initially published on the political site Daily Kos, and the Kansas City Star was able to confirm the authenticity of the email through one of the named recipients.

In the Friday edition of an internal publication, K-State Today, Schulz issued a reminder about university policy. “As we get closer to election day, I’ve been getting some questions about university political activities. I just want to remind everyone that Kansas State University does not endorse political candidates, and employees do not speak for the university when they endorse candidates. Employees should also avoid using their university-affiliation in any endorsements or statements.”