THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: The business of being a Coug

Pat Chun seems like a decent guy.

He’s also a capable sports administrator.

On the other hand, you suddenly get the feeling that Pat would have shoved an old lady off the Titanic’s last lifeboat, and into the freezing Atlantic.

Oh, and UW?

President Ana Mari Cauce could be available to stamp on that shivering lady’s hand, lest she wiggle her way back and body-block Chun for the final life jacket.

We knew that college athletics had become a vicious business – but these schools battling for every last dollar in TV and sponsor money are like Mob families going to the mattresses.

Since the news broke on Tuesday afternoon that Chun, athletic director at Washington State since 2018, I’ve been trying to connect whatever dots that would end with Pat in Seattle.

One thing is clear: This sort of poaching could only happen in a state where the main universities answer to their own board of trustees.

In Arizona, for instance, the joint trustees would likely not allow one school to cannibalize another.

In Washington, though, it’s a free-for-all.

Chun was believed to be a Coug to his very soul, and here he’s bailing out in favor of the in-state school that helped dynamite the Pac-12 and left Washington State starving in the wilderness.

BUT, HEY, welcome to college athletics.

As former UCLA coach Chip Kelly put it: “Big dogs eat the small dogs.”

Chun obviously (and maybe sensibly) has chosen to eat dinner rather than BE dinner.

Former Wazzu football player Michael Bumpus, now co-host of a regular radio/podcast in Seattle, did a hell of a job handling the Chun news on air.

“It’s tough, no question, this one is really tough,” he said. “Pat is such a good dude, but this is the way of college sports now. 

“It’s crazy. And it’s money. 

“Kalen DeBoer leaves UW for Alabama, Jedd Fisch comes from Arizona to replace him.

“UW fires basketball coach Mike Hopkins and hires Danny Sprinkle from Utah State.

“Then the athletic directors: Troy Dannen was only at Washington for a few months and he’s gone to Nebraska.

“As a Coug, man, it hurts me to see Pat leave for the UW job, but hey, it’s business.”

Bumpus had a message for Wazzu fans, whom he noted were the ones hurt the most from this strange shift of jobs and schools.

“Look, you’ve got to cheer for the names on the back and on the front,” he said. “Root for the school.

“The administrators are loyal as possible, but if they have a chance at a better job with more pay, they’re going to take care of their families.”

Bumpus urged Wazzu alums and donors to attend a May 17 collective event in Spokane, a fundraiser to help the school compete as a distinct underdog in Division I.

Chun, meanwhile, does get credit for doing a good job raising money for a Cougar program that was gasping not so long ago.

Even though some conferences and TV networks tossed Wazzu and Oregon State under the bus, both schools are in reasonably healthy shape — and will receive large windfalls from the Pac-12 treasure chest.

Chun’s work with limited resources in Pullman is what put him in demand, although it’s fair to say no one really guessed that his upward move would consist only of a trip west over the mountains.

THE ONE slightly funky piece of Chun’s surprise departure relates to all those moves that Bumpus mentioned.

Dannen was a lame duck at the time — busy negotiating with Nebraska — although no one on Montlake necessarily knew it.

If we back up a bit, Chun was close to former UW athletic director Jen Cohen (now at USC) and to Cauce, her boss.

It is NOT unusual for executives at one school to chat with counterparts elsewhere about coaches and job candidates.

With Washington jumping to the Big Ten — and the differences in finances and goals that go with it — it would have been routine (sort of) for Cohen or Cauce to ask Chun for his general thoughts on just about anything.

What we do NOT want to imagine is that Chun was helping UW make coaching decisions — even if he hadn’t yet been offered the job in Seattle.

It does feel a little weird, because Dannen has only been gone a few days, barely time for any kind of search, and then in a flash, Chun is offered the position at UW.

Truly, I hope this was all done with fairness and transparency.

We can (and will) discuss what Wazzu does now.

The Cougs have taken so many hits that they’re pretty bruised, but they’ve still hung in there.

I don’t expect that to change.

They’re a tough bunch.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through

Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”