As the rest of the sports world paws over the merits of the first 12-team College Football Playoffs field, announced Sunday and led by the undefeated Big Ten Conference champion Oregon Ducks, we direct your attention to a more prosaic, yet more long-term, part of the conversation.
Kirk Schulz, 61, is retiring in June after nine years as president of Washington State University. In a November interview with Cascade PBS, Schulz was asked several big-picture questions about his faltering industry, as well as what problems were most vexing to him.
“If you look at the high-stress points of my nine years, “he said, “I would say the two are COVID and athletics.”
He did not say whether the items were in proper order. But even coming in second to a killer pandemic tells more about the toxicity of college sports life than any Excel spreadsheet or casino bookmaker.
Schulz was referring to causes and outcomes of the Pac-12 Conference collapse that left WSU and Oregon State orphaned athletically. Because of weak media-rights revenues, 10 schools fled to the wealthier Big Ten, Big 12 and Atlantic Coast conferences — at about the same time that defeats in federal courts forced the NCAA in 2021 to begin treating athletes as the paid professionals they long should have been.
Smaller-budget schools like WSU and OSU are among the biggest casualties in the reformation because they lack the brands and alumni bases to compete for player talent in a marketplace of private money that so far lacks any real regulation or public disclosure.
Another acute episode in this quandary is underway in Pullman right now, as the NCAA’s transfer portal for players opens Monday. The Cougars were 8-1, including an Apple Cup win in Seattle over the Huskies, and briefly in modest discussion for the CFP field. Then the Cougs lost their final three games to big underdogs New Mexico, Oregon State and Wyoming, thanks to a collapsing defense.
WSU nevertheless was rewarded Sunday with a berth in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego against Syracuse. Yet industry cruelties also may punish, too. Their premier quarterback, John Mateer, a third-year sophomore who sliced up Washington, is taking offers for his services via NIL money. A Seattle Times story cited a claim by Pullman podcaster and booster Paul Sorensen that Mateer, who threw for 3,129 yards (65% completion rate), 29 TDs and 7 picks and rushed for 826 yards and 18 scores, already has a $1 million offer from an unnamed school. His NIL swag in Pullman this year was reported to be about $400,000.
Mateer’s successful predecessor as WSU QB, Cam Ward, a year ago took NIL swag worth more than $1 million to join the University of Miami. It appears the Cougs are becoming prey for the predators. To counter, WSU boosters have in the Cougar Collective a new 1890 Club (the school’s founding year) and charges members $18.90 for a monthly donation. They also have deals with a beer maker and a coffee bean company to donate a portion of retail sales to the collective.
All nice. But dimes, beers and beans are not the coins of this realm. Especially after the news of last week. One of the nation’s most sought-after QB recruits switched his commitment from Louisiana State to Michigan, thanks to the romantic whim of the world’s third-richest man.
Oracle founder Larry Ellison is reported by Front Office Sports to have provided a promised package worth between $10 million and $12 million to Bryce Underwood to be a Wolverine, via Champions Circle, the Michigan collective. Turns out Ellison is neither an alum, nor a fan, of the football team. But his sixth wife, Jolin, is both. So there you have it — weapons-grade gridiron whimsy.
It’s hard to imagine the equivalent event in the Palouse. I don’t even know if there’s a Mrs. Fudd.
The Huskies likely are no better off. The Montlake Futures collective was proud of its ability a year ago to get $1.2 million to Michael Penix Jr. to use his sixth year of eligibility at Washington, instead of declaring for the NFL draft. It paid off with a 14-1 record and a berth in the CFP title game. But after that, Penix and more than half the players, all the coaches, and the athletics director left for better things. This year, the Huskies finished their initial Big 10 season at 6-6 — they lost four road games against veteran conference schools by a combined 127-57 — and were rewarded with a New Year’s Eve game in a chill wind over the Rio Grande desert with Louisville in El Paso’s Sun Bowl.
At least the Huskies found a bit of revenge during the season, beating 27-17 their foe from the title game, Michigan. The Wolverines (7-5) were also decimated by departures, including their coach, Jim Harbaugh, a true Michigan man until he broke some NCAA rules and escaped sanction by fleeing to the NFL. Had he known of Mrs. Ellison, maybe a little NCAA jail time would have been worth it.
It is not hard to understand why Schulz is eager to move on from the big-time college sports virus (hey, his Montlake counterpart, Ana Mari Cauce, is bailing from her job too). But since he did not specify a posting or a passion that will occupy his post-Palouse life, and still remains fond of his days there, I offer a suggestion: Do the Cougs a solid by inquiring whether Mrs. Ellison has a vacancy at pool boy.
WSU alum here, where my heart remains, because of people who believed in me, though I have advanced degrees from the U of WA. I think Div. I college football has been bought by big media companies and players bought by those with deep pockets of money. A few will benefit while most won’t. The NCAA means little to nothing. College football has been corrupted. Let the so-called conferences separate from their universities. Who cares?
You’re making a point I’ve championed: Separate the entertainment dept from the university. Have an independent enterprise pay rent for the brand, stadium, colors and season-ticket list, and use the revs to pay for non-rev sports. Class attendance optional. Simple, yes?