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THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: AD Chun making progress at WSU — even as the rest of the Pac-12 turns

| September 25, 2020 1:25 AM

You can almost picture Pat Chun.

I imagine the Washington State athletic director taking yet another strange phone call, or glancing at one more unusual text, and…

Thump!

That would be Pat, keeping his frustration to himself, but still banging his head lightly on his desk.

Thump!

OK, maybe he’s banging it twice.

And why not?

Things are so screwed up in the Pac-12 Conference — plus some less serious issues with football transfers in Pullman — that it could reduce even the calmest executive to a point of frustration that, you know…

Would make a man feel like whacking his forehead on the mahogany, just to clear away that fuzzy feeling of helplessness.

If Chun actually did bang his head, or went off somewhere on campus to let out a scream in private…

Who could blame him?

Circumstances have put Chun and Wazzu in a truly difficult position, and I can’t see that they really deserve it.

So…

Thump!

NOT TOO terribly long ago, Chun learned that his successful but controversial football coach, Mike Leach, was leaving for Mississippi State.

Chun probably wouldn’t say this in public, but it was time.

Leach has a certain shelf life — just as he did before things exploded at Texas Tech — and heading off to the SEC was probably the best for everyone.

Leach achieved what a school hires him to do, which is to put you on the map.

Get ESPN in town, rev up recruiting, throw a million passes and see some of your guys go off to the NFL.

That’s what Mike Leach can do for you, and you hope that it happens before there’s too much fuss — or lawsuits, as occurred in the messy divorce at Tech.

The parting this time, though, was amicable, and the Cougs remained a hot ticket.

You need to follow Leach with the right sort of coach to get the most out of your product, though, and Chun landed a good one when he convinced Nick Rolovich to abandon Hawaii for the Palouse.

Here was another passing guru, a player- and media-friendly guy to keep Wazzu’s name in lights.

What’s more…

Even though football is your big revenue driver at a school like Washington State, and Rolo’s arrival was a clear winner, it’s important to note here that Chun also had found an exciting and innovative basketball coach in Kyle Smith.

“Kyle is going to get that thing rolling, you watch,” said Gonzaga AD Mike Roth, a man who knows just a bit about building a hot hoops program.

Recruiting for both major sports was beginning to roll…

Maybe even better than expected.

CHUN HAD every reason to think that the school could begin cutting into the athletic department’s looming financial deficit.

Pat had done the heavy lifting — hiring Smith away from San Francisco and convincing Rolovich to take the baton from Leach.

Then came COVID-19.

No income from March Madness.

Confusion within the Pac-12 about how to handle sports this fall, first with a decision to postpone everything until Jan. 1 and then with internal chaos when new testing procedures changed the picture.

The conference announced there would be football beginning on Nov. 7, after all, only to have some schools say they’d like to start on Halloween.

Ah, but there are problems with health officials in California, who have ruled that universities in the state can play games — but not practice with full squads.

Huh?

Thursday, the conference announced it had set Nov. 6 as a start date for football.

Meanwhile, news leaks that the conference gave bonuses to people in and around the San Francisco office of Commissioner Larry Scott, and it happened…

Just before dozens of employees were laid off or furloughed.

THIS ODD disbursement of money at the oddest possible time may not be illegal or anything, but once again the Pac-12 looks like it’s being run by four guys in a basement somewhere.

For instance…

What about basketball schedules, with all those games originally set for late November and into December that are now someplace in limbo?

Has the Jan. 1 embargo been lifted for them?

As for football, it matters to the tune of about $5 million per game in TV income for each conference school?

Somehow, you suspect it all will get sorted out.

But there’s no guarantee that Washington State University won’t endure further income loss through all of this, along with…

More headaches.

Thump!

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball, once per month during the offseason.