Washington State is "at a crossroads" as AD Bill Moos departs for the same role at Nebraska, and the school will have to "decide whether to stay on Moos road, where any football expense is justifiable, or to take another road, where some level of sanity and perspective about the role of sports within an institute of knowledge is regained," according to Shawn Vestal of the Spokane SPOKESMAN-REVIEW. During the '15-16 school year, only one college among the largest 100 in the U.S. "ran a bigger proportional deficit" than WSU's 22%, and that was Cal. WSU President Kirk Schulz and his administration have "come up with a plan to get sports back in the black -- a plan that relies on no real spending cuts." The school said that it is "making progress," as the deficit was lowered from $13M to $10M last year. Under the plan, it will take "only four more years to balance that budget." WSU football coach Mike Leach last week praised Moos as the "best AD he's ever worked with," because Moos "understood that you simply must spend a lot of money on football." There are some reasons for the "deficit woes" at WSU athletics. Revenue from the "much-heralded" Pac-12 Networks deal TV has came in lower than anticipated and fundraising has "not been as high as hoped." Schulz and his team said that they want "quality and excellence" in the next AD. But they could "decide that they also want sports to occupy a place in the hierarchy of university priorities that is a bit less insane" (Spokane SPOKESMAN-REVIEW, 10/22).
