How WSU benefits from Pac-12 windfall

Washington State has obviously benefitted from the additional money brought in by the most recent TV deal negotiated by Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott.

And this week, WSU athletic director Bill Moos is looking forward to showing off the beauty of our area to his peers, when the Pac-12 administrators visit Coeur d'Alene for conference meetings this weekend at The Coeur d'Alene Resort.

"First of all, we're really looking forward to hosting the summer meetings at The Coeur d'Alene Resort," said Moos, who became WSU's athletic director in April 2010. "I was at the University of Oregon the last time it was hosted up here (in 2005 or '06), and I remember my colleagues and peers were moaning and groaning, 'Oh, we've got to go all the way up there,' and 'We've got that long drive from the Spokane airport,' and they had never seen the property.

"And at the completion of the meetings it was almost unanimous, 'Let's have 'em here every year - this is gorgeous.'"

Earlier this week, in a phone interview with The Press, Moos discussed the impact of Scott on the conference, and how the revenue from the massive TV deal he negotiated helps Washington State.

How has the extra windfall from the new TV deal helped Washington State?

It's been incredible. Using those monies to address debt, we've built over $130 million of new football facilities, which we desperately needed to do, and probably another $20 in facility enhancements for our other sports. It enabled us to attract top-rate coaches, and retain them, because we are now able to have competitive salaries and packages for our coaching staffs. And also, it has helped in regards to recruiting, and other infrastructure within the department itself. It's been fabulous.

And we also have equal distribution (of revenue), which we didn't have before. Washington State is now getting the same amount of money as USC, or UCLA, and that's been critical for our ability to grow and develop.

How does this deal compare to the revenue from the old TV deal (which was mostly with west coast-based regional sports networks)?

The last year we were just shy of $3 million, in 2011. And now, we are averaging $20.5 (million). It escalates through the duration (of the deal), and we're up around $18 million now. And of that, we're utilizing $7.5 a year to service dept on those facilities and the coaching hires that we felt that we needed to invest in at that critical time.

Everyone notices the money that has gone into the football program. Are the other programs benefitting as well?

The $20, $25 million has already been invested into our soccer facility, we're going into Phase 2 of that. We completed resurfaced and reconfigured our track. We built an indoor golf practice facility. We put a pretty good investment into baseball, with new FieldTurf, lights, and outfield fence. It's a work in progress in our basketball arena, but we're updating that yearly. The first thing we did was to re-do and upgrade our men's and women's facility for basketball practice. Everybody, pretty much, has shared in the improvements, and there's still some to come.

What's next on the wish list?

A permanent indoor practice facility that will really benefit our sports who practice and compete outdoors. That's on the drawing board, along with a baseball clubhouse that will allow our baseball players to locker, shower and train right there at the baseball field itself. Those are the two that we are fundraising for right now.

Is Beasley Coliseum (home for basketball) being upgraded?

We've been working on that in stages. The first thing we did was a $4.5 million center-hung video board, which has just been outstanding. We re-branded and really addressed some of the cosmetic things in the interior that needed to be done. And now we're working on upgrading our locker rooms.

You are a little more familiar with Phil Knight (co-founder and chairman of Nike, Inc.), having been an AD at Oregon before coming here. What are your thoughts on his involvement with University of Oregon athletics?

People get confused with Nike, and Phil Knight, even though he is a founder and CEO of Nike. We're enjoying a fabulous relationship with Nike, as are many of our conference peers, and just negotiated a new (contract) with them, which we're very pleased about. That part is truly business. Phil's philanthropy to the University of Oregon is out of his passion for his alma mater. And really, his attention early on was to the new law school and library ... he really started to get philanthropic with athletics when I got there (Moos was AD at Oregon from 1995-2007), and we developed a relationship. And I think he liked the vision that we had, and really was primarily investing in our concepts for facilities.

I look at it with Phil, back in those days in the early '90s, and on into the 2000s, much like the TV money we're seeing now at Washington State - it's somewhat the same, in that he allowed Oregon to get ahead of the game in building facilities that, in turn, attracted talent. We're really doing the same thing here right now, with how we're utilizing our television money.

With the extra money you're bringing in, is there a chance you'll add sports, such as softball?

I'd like to, but our approach now is to focus on getting on the sports we have right now healthy and competitive, get our budget in place where we're solvent, and then we'll explore our options.

Certainly softball would be one that we'd want to look at, because we have a wealth of talent up here in the Northwest. And that would be one, with the gender equity, that would not hurt us. We are in compliance right now, but adding more women's programs certainly does not hurt.

To those who look at the TV deal and say, "Well, the money solves all problems," what is the reality?

We've got a lot of work still to do. But we're starting to see a lot of progress. I've hired nine head coaches since I've been here in five years, and they're all quality coaches who want to be at Washington State, look at us as a destination and not as a stepping stone. We have to continue to focus on facilities, on recruiting, and I'm confident that in the next three or four years that Washington State will be in a position to realistically be competitive in every sport, be in a position to compete for championships.

Aside from the increased revenue, how else has Larry Scott helped improve the Pac-12?

He's a brilliant tactician that knows how to move a conference forward, into the national stage. Even though we've been competitive through the years, for a long time when they thought of our conference, they've thought of USC in football, UCLA in basketball, Arizona State in football, Oregon in track. Now we're all competitive in all sports, and with our TV deal, people across the country are respecting us, and it shows.

What do you think the next step should be for the Pac-12?

We've got to continue to grow the Pac-12 Networks. It's profitable now, but we've got to see it grow, and we've got a plan in place to do that - for it to produce a revenue stream that will be significant, along the lines of what the Big Ten and other conferences are seeing right now. (Resolving the DirecTV issue) is in good hands with Larry, and hopefully we can work the deal out with DirecTV and a couple other providers, and then I really feel we'll be in a good position.