WSU President Kirk Schulz: WSU naming rights deal(s)
getting closer
By BARRY BOLTON Cougfan.com 1/11/2019
SPRING IS THE time of change, new beginnings and ...
naming rights deals for Cougar football?
Washington State President Kirk Schulz tells Cougfan.com he is
optimistic that by the end of the spring, WSU will be able to announce naming
rights deals for both the field at Martin Stadium and the Cougar Football
Complex. Schulz said dialog is ongoing with “several potential partners.”
Cougfan.com broke the story in April that WSU and
Darigold were in serious, though far-from-complete, discussions focused on
field naming rights.
Schulz of course wouldn't name names of any kind in our
conversation but tells CF.C he is "optimistic we’ll make an announcement
on some form of corporate agreement, if you will, sometime during the spring
semester.”
While naming rights for the WSU soccer complex and other
venues also are being discussed, he said, the field at Martin Stadium and the
Cougar Football Complex are front and center of current talks.
Schulz said a deal to rename Martin Stadium itself also is
a possibility but not the current focus.
“We’re having discussions on several of them, but I think
the ones we’re really focused on right now is the football operations building
and the field at Martin Stadium -- and it’s the field IN Martin Stadium, not
the field AND Martin Stadium. Those are the two we’re focused on ...” he said.
The timing of it all is working in Washington State’s
favor with the Cougars coming off a school-record 11-win season, and owning 37
victories over the past four years -- the 11-th best mark in the Power 5 over
that timeframe.
“The good news is our football product is seen as really
nationally relevant, exciting, and there is lots of interest seen in what we’re
doing along the West Coast,” said Schulz. “So we’re in a really good point in
time to be talking about some of these things with potential partners.”
The size and terms of the deals being considered are not
known publicly.
The field at Martin Stadium has never been named. The
idea began to gain currency more than a decade ago when former athletic
director Jim Sterk, in the days before college football TV money soared,
searched for ways to fund facilities improvements and floated the notion of
selling both field-naming rights and rights to renaming Martin.
Related commentary: Time is now to rename Martin Stadium
MARTIN STADIUM OPENED IN 1972 ON TOP of the old Rogers
Field, and the naming rights cost the family of former Gov. Clarence Martin a
total of $250,000. It doesn't appear the donation carried stipulations on the
length the name had to stay on the venue.
When Sterk first began talking about field- and
stadium-naming rights, the numbers believed targeted under 10-year deals were
$5 million to $10 million for the life of the contract for the field and $10
million to $20 million for the stadium name.
Based on CF.C’s cursory research, most deals for naming
rights have involved renaming stadiums rather than fields. One exception was
Cal’s Kabam Field at Memorial Stadium -- a $1.2 million per year deal ($18
million total) -- which was cancelled after three years. The going rate for major-college stadium
renaming appears to be in the $1 million-plus per year category.
Two of the nation's most notable field-naming deals are
in the Pac-12, with USC's $4.7 million per year pact with United Airlines and
Washington's $4.1 million per year agreement with Alaska Airlines
::::::::::::
In April 2018, Cougfan.com reported
=BRING ON THE CHOCOLATE milk and cottage cheese! Well,
possibly, anyway. Darigold Field at Martin Stadium -- or perhaps even Darigold
Stadium -- may be coming to Washington State University, according to multiple
sources in positions to know.
=WSU’s decade-long quest to sell naming rights -- to the
field at Martin Stadium and/or the stadium itself -- is far from complete but
discussions with Darigold are said to have entered serious territory, the
sources say.
=No one would put a timeline on the proceedings “but
obviously the goal is prior to the football season,” said one. Discussions
mostly have focused on field naming, but stadium renaming also has been
floated, CF.C learned.
=Talks with Darigold, the Seattle-based marketing and
processing arm of the farmer-owned Northwest Dairy Association, have been
underway in one form or another for more than a year, the sources said. But,
cautioned one, an agreement is “by no means a done deal."
:::::::::::::::
PINK ERICKSON,
FATHER OF COACH DENNIS ERICKSON
Faithful News
for CougGroup reader George Forbes is disappointed there was little if any
mention of Pink Erickson, a former WSU football coach, in recent stories about
his son, Dennis Erickson, a former WSU head football coach headed for induction
into the College Football Hall of Fame.
Here’s a link
to a photo of Pink:
https://outlet.historicimages.com/products/sps02594
Here are links
to information about Pink, who died in 2004:
:::::::::
Coug Men's Basketball via WSU Athletics website
WSU Falls on the Road at Colorado
The Cougars head to Salt Lake City to take on Utah,
Saturday.
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Tyler Bey scored a career-high 26
points, Shane Gatling had 17 and the Colorado Buffaloes routed short-handed
Washington State 92-60 Thursday night for its first conference win of the
season.
Bey added 10 rebounds for his seventh career
double-double. D'Shawn Schwartz added 16 points and McKinley Wright IV had 10
for Colorado (10-5, 1-2 Pac-12), which had opened conference play last week
with losses at Arizona and Arizona State.
It was the fifth straight loss for Washington State, which
was held to a season low in points and remained winless away from home this
season, dropping to 0-7. Washington State (7-8, 0-2) also was without its
leading scorer, Robert Franks Jr., who missed a fourth game due to a hip
contusion.
Marvin Cannon had 14 points to lead the Cougars, who have
yet to win in eight trips to Boulder. Jeff Pollard and Isaiah Wade added 12
points apiece.
Trailing by 16 at the half, the Cougars put together a
7-0 burst, including a 3-pointer by Ahmed Ali to narrow the deficit to 43-34.
But the Buffaloes regrouped after a timeout, scoring nine of the next 11
points, with Schwartz chipping in a couple of baskets as Colorado rebuilt its
lead to 14 points.
By the time Bey converted a 3-point play with 7:16 left,
the Buffaloes were in front by 26 points and Washington State was without Wade
and CJ Elleby after they fouled out within a minute of each other.
Washington State scored the first five points before the
Buffaloes responded with a 16-0 run capped by Wright' fast-break layup off a
steal. By halftime, the Buffaloes had stretched their lead to 41-25, helped by
the hot-shooting Bey, who scored 15 before the break.
BIG PICTURE
Washington State: The Cougars came in as the highest
scoring team in the Pac-12 but were overcome by their struggles on the road and
continued to miss their top scorer, Robert Franks, who remains sidelined by
injury.
UP NEXT
Washington State: Wraps up a road swing at Utah on
Saturday night.
::::
Information below from WSU Sports Info:
Thursday night in Boulder, Colo., POSTGAME NOTES WSU at
CU men’s hoops:
Sophomore Marvin Cannon led WSU with 14 points, his fifth
career double-figure scoring game…he added 5 rebounds.
Junior Isaiah Wade finished with 12 points, marking his
most points since missing three games due to a sprained ankle (most since 14
against Cal Poly, Nov. 19).
Wade added 6 rebounds before fouling out with seven
minutes to go, his first career foul out.
Junior Jeff Pollard had a season-high 12 points…he was
just 4 shy of his career high.
Pollard added 3 rebounds.
Freshman CJ Elleby fouled out for the first time in his
career…he finished with 6 points and 2 rebounds, coming in averaging 16.4
points and 7.7 rebounds.
Senior Viont’e Daniels did not score for the first time
since Dec. 31, 2017 against USC.
WSU had a season-low 60 points…its previous low was 63
points at New Mexico State, Dec. 1.
The Pac-12’s leading 3-point shooting team, WSU shot just
.111 (2-for-18) from 3-point range.
The Cougars were without Pac-12 leading scorer Robert
Franks for the third-straight game, due to a hip injury.
The Cougars remain on the road and head to Salt Lake City
to take on Utah, Saturday Jan. 12 at 5 p.m. PT/6 p.m. MT.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
A report about WSU at Colorado men’s basketball game
which appears in the Moscow Pullman Daily News includes:
“They ran waves and waves of athletes at us and really
took control of the game again,” Cougars coach Ernie Kent said. “It’s a
learning lesson for particularly these new guys. We are going to have to
regroup out here on the road and play with a lot more toughness.”
::::
At WSU, UI and LCSC: Furloughed scientists, financial aid concerns
persist as government shutdown continues
By JUSTYNA TOMTAS of the Lewiston Trib Jan 11, 2019
Various research projects are on hold at Washington State
University because scientists with the U.S. Department of Agriculture remain on
furlough as the partial federal government shutdown enters its third week.
The exact number of furloughed individuals or delayed
research projects was not immediately available.
Phil Weiler, vice president for marketing and
communications, said scientists with the Agricultural Research Service, an arm
of the USDA, are housed on WSU campuses. They do research in conjunction with,
and separate from, the university, oftentimes working side by side with WSU
researchers.
“Their offices are dark, and they are not doing the
work,” Weiler said.
A handful of individuals deemed essential personnel have
authorization to check in on projects to ensure things run smoothly despite the
lack of active workers, Weiler said.
WSU is the top recipient of grants from the USDA,
according to Weiler.
“It not only impacts them, but it impacts our
researchers, because we share buildings, we share space and we share research
projects,” Weiler said. “We have students who help with that research that
aren’t able to do their work…. It’s a chance (for the students) to get real
world experience in work they may choose to do in the future, and they are losing
that opportunity to get that practical experience, as well as an opportunity to
make an income.”
Along with the stalled research, both Washington State
University and the University of Idaho are not currently being reimbursed for
invoices on projects that include federal grant funding.
UI could see a financial impact if the shutdown continues
for a significant period of time, according to Deb Shaver, assistant vice
president for research administrators.
“Right now, we’re submitting invoices where we don’t know
when we’ll be paid,” Shaver said.
If the government doesn’t reopen by Saturday, the
shutdown will become the longest in history. At the root of the closure is a
disagreement over funding for a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Shaver hopes the shutdown ends sooner rather than later.
“It’s a situation I think everybody for a lot of reasons
wants to see get resolved as quickly as possible, if only for the people who
are on furlough or are working without pay,” Shaver said. “Right now, it’s more
of an annoyance that we can’t contact our sponsors with questions or routinely
have interactions with them because there is no one on the other end.”
The lack of reimbursement can have different degrees of
effect on programs at WSU. It all boils down to a cash flow issue, Weiler said.
“It’s the same kind of issue federal workers are facing:
Will they get back pay?” Weiler asked. “Most likely, but it’s a cash flow
issue. You have to pay bills when bills are due, and if you don’t have cash
when they’re due, hopefully you have, as a university, the reserves to pay
those and recoup those costs later.”
At LCSC, money to support federal grant funded programs
like student support services and the College Assistance Migrant Program
already has been issued for this fiscal year, according to Andy Hanson, vice
president for student affairs.
The college did experience a “small glitch” for some
students with financial aid who were unable to access their IRS tax transcripts
for a verification process because of the shutdown, but Hanson said the
Department of Education provided LCSC with an alternative method.
Although all is well for now, that could change if the
shutdown continues for an extended period of time.
Students attempting to apply for financial aid in the
fall may see delays because the Department of Education is unable to check
certain items on the federal application.
“It’s still way early in the process and we’re not
concerned now, but if it goes on for a significantly longer period of time then
the picture can change a little bit,” Hanson said.
The college has taken a proactive stance and continues to
monitor the situation.
“We are all watching and kind of getting guidance from
different areas,” Hanson said. “If we start to see a big problem coming, we’ll
come together and figure out how to get it resolved, if we can.”
:::
WSU President Kirk Schulz and other presidents of public
universities in Washington sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee asking for a pay
raise for faculty and staff.
By CHERYL AARNIO, Evergreen Jan 11th, 2019
Schulz said pay raises will come from funding provided by
the state. Every two years, the university asks for a certain percentage of
salary increases from the legislator’s office.
For the upcoming state budget, WSU asked for a four
percent increase for this year and another four percent increase next year, he
said.
This is to cover cost of living and to make wages
competitive, said Colleen Kerr, vice president for external affairs and
government relations.
Schulz said WSU faculty and staff are not paid as well as
those of some of the universities it competes with. It would be easier to keep
faculty and staff in their position at WSU if they had a pay raise, he said.
In the last state budget, the university received less
than what they asked for, Schulz said. They were given a one percent wage
increase each year for faculty and a two percent wage increase each year for
classified staff.
“As the governor is preparing his budget, we just felt it
was important to take a strong stand that our faculty and staff deserve higher
wages,” he said.
Kerr said if the four percent wage increase is not completely
funded by the state, they do not plan to take money from other university
income sources like tuition revenue.
“There’s no other money for it,” she said.
Schulz said Inslee will propose his budget to the
legislature, and once the legislative session is over, the state budget will be
determined. It is typically comprised of both the governor’s and the
legislative’s budget proposals.
Kerr said once the legislature goes into session on Jan.
14, WSU will continue to advocate for the pay raises until early April. At that
point, the budget is negotiated between the House, Senate and governor’s
office.
She said they will not know if they receive the pay raise
until April 28.
Schulz said for the last six months, WSU has been
advocating for certain priorities, one of which is the pay raises. Some of the
lobbying is done by the government relations staff, Schulz or students who
travel to Olympia.
:::::::::::::::::::::
Cougs
Football’s Minshew, Soccer’s Weaver nominated for Seattle
‘Sports Star of the Year’
By DYLAN GREENE, Evergreen
Jan 10, 2019
Quarterback Gardner Minshew II and WSU soccer player
Morgan Weaver have both been nominated for Seattle Sports Star of the Year.
The award recognizes achievements by athletes in the
state of Washington and is given annually to one male and one female athlete.
Minshew finished this season with 4,779 passing yards and
42 total touchdowns en route to finishing fifth in Heisman Trophy voting.
Minshew will face other nominees for the male athlete
award including UW linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven and Seattle Seahawks wide
receiver Tyler Lockett.
Weaver led the soccer team with 13 goals this past season
as the team made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Weaver will compete with UW‘s Sis Bates and the Seattle
Storm’s Breanna Stewart among others for the female award.
The awards show will take place Feb. 7 in Seattle, and
you can vote for Minshew and Weaver at visitseattle.org.
::::
Women’s Basketball: Struggling Cougs battle soaring Utes
One loss Utah comes to town as WSU looks to get back on
track
By COLIN CONNOLLY, Evergreen
Jan 11, 2019
WSU women’s basketball will play in front of its home
crowd for the first time since Dec. 1 when they host Utah on Friday night.
The Cougars (6-8, 1-2) return to Beasley Coliseum after a
six-game road trip where the team went 3-3. Head Coach Kamie Ethridge said the
team had to reintroduce themselves to their home environment.
“It is unbelievable that it has been so long since our
last game here,” Ethridge said. “The team is super excited to be back.”
Ethridge said she is looking forward to coaching in front
of the drumline, band and cheerleaders, and getting a positive energy going in
the arena again.
WSU started conference play with a three-point victory
against UW on Dec. 30, a tough loss to then No. 11 Oregon State last Friday and
a 40-point defeat to No. 5 Oregon on Sunday.
Ethridge said she saw a mix of good and bad from her team
over the past two games. From playing toe-to-toe with the Beavers and having a
chance to win to playing as the worst version of themselves against the Ducks.
She said the Cougars need to improve their focus to avoid
playing inconsistently.
“You see what happens when you don’t show up mentally and
emotionally,” Ethridge said. “More than anything it affects your physical
play.”
She said when WSU walked away from those two games, they
reevaluated who they were going to be on game days. She expects them to be
ready for the Utes.
Utah (13-1, 2-1) comes to Pullman after defeating Arizona
80-64 Sunday in Salt Lake City. The Utes only loss this season came against
Arizona State last Friday by two points.
Ethridge said Utah is coming in with a lot of confidence
and the Cougars match up pretty well with them, but that doesn’t mean the team
can just expect to show up and win.
Senior forward Megan Huff leads the Utes, averaging just
under 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. Ethridge said the Cougars will need to
slow down Huff if they want to secure a victory over one of the top teams in
the conference.
“We get another chance to play a really good team and see
where we stand,” Ethridge said.
After playing Utah, WSU will host Colorado (10-4, 0-3) on
Sunday. The Buffaloes are winless in conference play through three games and
will be hungry for their first Pac-12 victory this season.
Colorado is led by senior guard Kennedy Leonard who is
averaging just over 14 points and seven assists per contest.
The Cougars will take on Utah at 7 p.m. tonight and the
Buffaloes at noon Sunday. Both games will be played at Beasley Coliseum and can
be seen on Pac-12 Networks.
:::::::::::::::::::::
Football:
BY ART THIEL, Sports Press NW, 1/11/2019
COUGS’ LEACH MAY BE ON TO SOMETHING
Alabama’s No. 2 QB, Jalen Hurts, is contemplating free
agency, the same idea that brought Minshew to Washington State. Whaddaya think,
Chris Petersen?
Would Mike Leach think about a hired gun every season? /
Drew McKenzie, Sportspress Northwest
Gardner Minshew’s single football season at Washington
State might have meant more than an 11-2 record, a No. 10 ranking in the final
Associated Press poll, and the elevation of fake-mustache production to the
hottest industry in U.S. manufacturing.
Minshew may have amplified a trend that could become a
Palouse tradition: The annual hire of the best available graduate-transfer
quarterback to operate the Cougars’ Air Raid offense.
WSU can pull it off because coach Mike Leach invented
perhaps the best single-sentence recruiting pitch since, “Kid, you want it in
50s or 100s?”
In his recruiting call, Leach told Minshew, who was ready
to transfer to Alabama just to sit on coach Nick Saban’s bench, “How’d you like
to lead the nation in passing?”
It’s football catnip for the cats who want to show out
for the NFL.
Minshew was seduced, and Leach delivered, or close
enough. Minshew finished second in the nation to Ohio State’s Dwayne Haskins,
vanquisher of the Washington Huskies in the Rose Bowl, in passing yardage
(4,831 to 4,779). Minshew was also second in completion percentage (70.7).
Minshew isn’t much of a pro candidate, which is almost
always the case with Leach quarterbacks, but if he wants, he’ll get workouts
and tryouts. More importantly, he’ll never again have to buy a beer anywhere in
eastern Washington.
The notion of trend to tradition developed after news
Wednesday reported by several media outlets that Alabama’s Jaylen Hurts, the
best backup quarterback since Steve Young carried Joe Montana’s laundry,
entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal.
That’s the dorky bureaucratic handle for college free
agency. A junior, Hurts graduated in December with a year of eligibility
remaining.
The SEC’s offensive player of the year as a freshman,
Hurts was 26-2 with championship game appearances in each of the past two
seasons as starting quarterback. But he was beaten out for the starting job by
sophomore Tua Tagovailoa, who finished second in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
Hurts won over the college football world by his
willingness to stay at Alabama and accept with grace the diminished role. He
did play in 13 of 15 games, rushing for 167 yards and two touchdowns and
passing for 765 yards and eight scores. He even caught two passes.
Before the CFP semifinal game against Oklahoma in the
Orange Bowl, Hurts told reporters, “I’ve been counted out. I was supposed to do
this, I was supposed to do that. Even last year after the (championship) game,
I was supposed to be gone. This year, I was supposed to redshirt and do all
those things.
“But I’m here. I’m here for this team, and that’s what is
most important to me.”
But now he appears to be gone, although he can withdraw
from the transfer portal without losing his final year of eligibility.
NCAA rules permit graduates to transfer without a penalty
of a year’s sit-out, which is required of undergraduates. Those who have
enrolled in a graduate program rarely stay in it after football eligibility
expires. From 2011 to 2017, the NCAA reports that the number of graduate
transfers has quadrupled.
If Hurts, a Houston native, moves on to play elsewhere,
he’s good enough that he will have his choice of schools with higher profiles
than WSU, as this ESPN story explains.
Even though WSU may be out-classed for Hurts, the point
remains that other QBs this season and in future ones will find WSU more
attractive after Minshew’s trail-blazing. He also solved any question over the
speed with which a good QB can absorb Leach’s spread offense. It may look a
little complicated at first, but the short-pass mayhem is actually simple after
repeated practice.
The potential of annual hired guns makes it harder to
recruit four-year QBs, a threat
sufficient for the school’s president, Kirk Schulz, to fire out a cautionary
tweet Thursday.
Nevertheless, the hired gun is a tactic for which the
Huskies have no counter. Because of higher grad-school academic standards and
an early application deadline of mid-December — before a potential transfer’s
season may be done — Washington can’t play that game.
When the subject of Minshew’s success came up during
Apple Cup week, Huskies coach Chris Petersen admitted he was irked at the
unequal playing field.
“It’s a lot harder for us to get transfers — that’s my
problem with this whole thing,” Petersen said. “It’s not all the same, in terms
(of academic standards and timelines). I
just know we haven’t gotten one in here yet. It’s really hard to get that done.
At other places, it’s not . . .
“Let’s be real: They’re not going there to get a degree.
If everybody is on the same page and a guy is going to come play football, then
it’s all good. I’m happy for the guy. I really am. It wasn’t working out where
he was, and he’s having this unbelievable experience (in Pullman). I think that’s
great. I think you’re going to see more and more of it, but we’re not seeing it
here.”
After five consecutive Apple Cup wins, the amount of eye
moisture for Petersen’s problem in the Palouse is minimal. But if Hurts should
suddenly appear on the WSU campus in a photo enrolling in the veterinary
science school’s Master’s program of integrative physiology and neuroscience,
with a football tucked under his arm, I would pay large coin to stand in
Petersen’s vicinity to observe the subsequent cardiovascular event.
And the Apple Cup would become waaay more compelling.
#
