WSU
ATHLETICS
John
Blanchette: Washington State’s plan for balanced athletics budget uses mental
gymnastics
Thu., May
31, 2018, 10:10 p.m.
By John
Blanchette Spokane S-R
In the
world of NCAA sports, Washington State is to fiscal gymnastics what Alabama is
to football.
If only
they handed out national championships for that sort of thing.
The
Cougars, in the persons of WSU athletic director Patrick Chun and chief
university budget officer Joan King, were back on the balance-sheet beam
Thursday, doing splits and flippy dismounts as a warmup for the show they must
put on for the school’s board of regents next week laying out what athletics is
going to do about That Darned Deficit.
Which
looks to reach $68.1 million – a cumulative figure – by the end of fiscal year
2018 here in a month, and $85.1 million by 2022.
Well,
forget that for a minute. Wazzu certainly has.
The
immediate strategy is simply to have one year’s revenue match or exceed
expenses, something the Cougar accountants believe can occur by 2023. You know,
a five-year plan, like the basketball coach gets. Every year.
Maybe Chun
will have more success with it than Ernie Kent.
This is
coming to a head now because the Legislature last March hammered out a law
demanding deficit-reduction plans from any universities with athletic
departments in the red. Also mandated: that those plans and financial
statements from the previous three years be “conspicuously” posted, an ironic
nod to transparency by the same lawmakers who tried to board up their windows
by gutting the Public Records Act.
Anyway,
there was some forthright talk from Chun on Thursday about it being time to
“take fiscal responsibility.” Which, in college athletics always means finding
more money – yours, usually – and never less in the way of expense.
Some of
the hows were fascinating. For instance, in five years there’s to be a $3
million bump in ticket sales over the current $8.5 million – a mere 35 percent.
Most of this, Chun allowed, will have to come at the turnstiles of Beasley
Coliseum, given that football is doing near-capacity business, regardless of
what you might have read in that audit which was in the news.
Now, men’s
basketball attendance hasn’t topped 3,200 a game in five years and the women,
well, you can hear whispered conversations from the bleachers across the court.
But Chun did hire a women’s coach – Kamie Ethridge – with some cachet, Kent has
been out emptying junior colleges and, what the heck, there’s no price tag on
unsubstantiated optimism.
What else?
Oh, the Cougs want to double their income from – wait for it – student fees.
Because nothing says fiscal responsibility like adults with money management
issues panhandling 19-year-olds already sliding into student loan debt. Two
recent tries in that direction went nowhere. Yet Chun, just four months into
his gig, senses “nothing but a clear love for Washington State athletics” from
his student interactions.
OK then.
In the
meantime, Chun will continue to exercise the fundraising skills that earned him
the job. Donations are up 25 percent, though surely some of that was in motion
prior to his arrival. The budget plan calls for a 30 percent increase to 2023
and selling off some naming rights – Cougfan.com has reported negotiations with
Darigold – would be a nice accelerant.
It’s one
thing to keep making those calls as part of doing business. When the potential
donor knows you’re 68 mil in the hole, the transaction might be easier if it’s
clear that you’re making some sacrifices, too.
Except
there’s no indication in WSU’s projected expenses of any such thing, other than
miniscule drops in guarantees – one less stiff on the basketball schedule – and
equipment. Coaching salaries? They’ll be going up 25 percent. Administration?
Going up, too.
Chun
continually talks of the “world-class experience” Wazzu intends to provide its
athletes and that, as the lowest budgeted public school in the Power 5
conferences, the Cougars are already doing more with less.
In the
crazy-stupid context of college athletics, true. This is true, too: A deficit
that will reach $85 million, no matter what the reason, says you’re living
beyond your means.
But that’s
athletics – the front porch of the university. Never mind that no one in
America can run a household like this. The repo man doesn’t bring back your car
when you miss this many payments.
On the
upside, if expenses stay flat and the Cougars’ revenue trends as projected,
that debt could be repaid by 2029. Oh, except they’re counting on a few years
after 2023 to build up department reserves. And expenses never stay flat.
Travel and tuition go up. There’s always a facility shopping list and surely
the football coach will need another salary bump to show he’s loved.
As the new
guy, Chun can only come up with a plan and try to make it work. But his future
calls – on rollover contracts and raises and staff proliferation and facilities
– need to reflect sanity and not just world-class sloganeering.
:::::::::
VINCE
GRIPPI SPOKANE S-R SPORTS
Grip on
Sports: Just why would anyone want to deal with the problems college athletic
directors face with these days?
Fri., June
1, 2018, 8:23 a.m.
By Vince
Grippi
A GRIP ON
SPORTS • A simple question: Why would anyone want to be an athletic director at
a major institution anymore? With the news from the Palouse yesterday, east and
west, such a question has to be asked. Read on.
•
Washington State's athletic department has a money problem, one many of us can
identify with. There just isn’t enough of it. And fixing that $85 million
problem ultimately falls on the shoulders of one man: athletic director Pat
Chun.
The new
kid in town.
There are
great expectations. Everyone’s watching him.
And Chun
better deliver a miracle. Because that’s what it’s going to take to pull the
Cougars out of the deepest deficit hole this side of the other Washington. Of
course, in D.C. there is no need to balance the budget, no law that says you
have to be forthright and open about your financial problems, no worries about
paying back the lenders.
Washington
State has all of those these days. And, as the school’s Regents prepare to
examine the athletic department’s plans to eliminate its annual shortfalls, we
– that covers everyone with access to the Internet and the will to wade through
documents – were given the chance to see how bad it’s become.
Of course
there is some irony in the regents having this role, as that group, under the
sway of former school president Elson Floyd, approved the over-the-top spending
of the past decade that got the athletic department into the red.
You don’t
think then-athletic director Bill Moos could have done this all on his own, do
you?
Floyd was
a willing co-conspirator, in a positive way, as the school attempted to keep up
with the Arizona States and Oregon States of the Pac-12 world. Those land-grant
schools’ athletic department budgets, sure, receive state help amounting to
millions of dollars and WSU doesn’t, but that’s the neighborhood the Cougars
were trying to occupy. Forget the Oregons and the UCLAs. All Washington State
was doing with its spending spree – a remodeled Martin Stadium, a football ops
building, more money for coaches – was keep within shouting distant with the
lower end of the conference.
It worked,
if football wins and losses are your measuring stick. But at a cost probably
even Floyd, Moos and the regents didn’t imagine. A big part of that,
considering WSU’s athletic department has the smallest budget in the
conference, is a revenue stream that was expected to overflow its banks by now.
That
didn’t happen. The media rights money river is really just a creek and the
Cougar faithful just doesn’t contribute the financial wherewithal for the
school to consistently run with the big dogs – or even the Beavers and
Buffaloes.
So there
is a huge (and growing) deficit. But Washington State has a plan to balance the
books. Another one, actually. There have been more before. Heck, Jim Sterk had
one more than a decade ago. It didn’t work. Neither will the latest one. And
even if it does, the athletic department will still owe the university about
$85 million in 2023.
How does
that much money get paid back?
It won’t
be. The budget plan mentions 2029, but that seems, well, unrealistic. Even if
the athletic department digs itself out of the hole (a big if considering the
ongoing revenue problems), there is no way it will magically produce surpluses
of more than $15 million a year to repay the university’s coffers.
That’s a
fantasy even Lord of the Rings’ readers wouldn’t buy.
And when
this budget plan fails? What then? All eyes will be on Chun.
Except
they won’t be. By then, he’ll probably be somewhere else. These days athletic
directors last about five years or so at each job. That’s the shelf life even
at places with sound financial backing. (For example, USC is on its third since
2010 and with the school president on his way out the door, it will be a
surprise if Lynn Swann survives the decade.)
What a
job.
::::::::::::::::::::::
Robert
Franks came to decision to return to Washington State ‘the night before’
withdrawal deadline
UPDATED:
Thu., May 31, 2018, 9:13 p.m.
By Theo
Lawson of Spokane’s S-R
PULLMAN –
Sixty-five days elapsed between the time Robert Franks put his name in the NBA
Draft and ultimately decided to pull it back out.
The
Washington State forward needed every one of them – quite literally – to
determine whether it was in his best interest to skip forward to the next
chapter of his career, or return to school for a final round with the Cougars.
Franks
decided his defense still needed some more work – his rebounding, too – and the
opportunity to move from a fringe second-round pick to a bona fide
first-rounder was one he felt was too good to pass up. Rest assured, the
skilled big man from Vancouver, Washington, didn’t get that clarity until late
in the process.
Just how
late?
“I came up
with my decision the night before (the deadline),” Franks, the Cougars’ top
scorer and second-leading rebounder in 2017-18, said Thursday afternoon in a
phone interview. “I felt like it would be best for me in the future going
forward.”
Even as he
wrestled with the decision, Franks found it advantageous to cycle through the
pre-draft process and collect feedback from NBA teams. The Brooklyn Nets,
Oklahoma City Thunder and Detroit Pistons all hosted him for private workouts,
and Franks was scheduled to work out in front of “eight to 10 more teams” but
opted to pass with the deadline approaching.
“Some
feedback was, go back for another year and you can work yourself into the first
round,” Franks said, “and other teams said, you have a shot at getting drafted.
It’s a 50/50 shot. But they were honest. I asked for their honest opinion.”
They told
the Pac-12’s reigning Most Improved Player how he can get better.
“They said
that I’m very versatile, I’m definitely an NBA shooter,” Franks said. “They
love my size, especially at that NBA level. The things I need to work on are
just defending and rebounding. Those are the two biggest things I look forward
to improving going into my senior year.”
Franks saw
a significant spike in his scoring average last season, pouring in 17.4 points
per game, and he pulled down more than six rebounds per game. He also worked to
become one of the most consistent 3-pointer shooters in the Pac-12, making 40.5
percent of his long-range attempts as a junior.
But those
numbers didn’t yield an invite to the NBA Combine, which brought 69 players –
and nine of Franks’ counterparts from the Pac-12 – to Chicago for five days of
evaluation in front of professional scouts.
“I was
pretty surprised I didn’t get (an invite),” said Franks, who said that swayed
his decision to come back “a little bit” but noted “it didn’t have that big of
an impact.”
Nonetheless,
Franks said the pre-draft process gave him a taste of what NBA life might be
like – he’ll go through this same routine next spring – and introduced him to
the work ethic and day-in, day-out commitment necessary to survive as a pro.
While back
home in Vancouver, he trained with a couple of NBA hopefuls, including Detroit
Mercy’s Kameron Chatman and Central Arkansas’ Jordan Howard. Franks said he
acquired “some great knowledge” from current pros such as Kay Felder of the
Detroit Pistons and Quincy Acie of the Brooklyn Nets.
“I think
it was very valuable,” Franks said. “A lot of people don’t know how tough the
pre-draft process is. It’s always fun, but the workload you have and the
traveling and working out for teams, it gets very intense. So to get a
headstart on it for next year was great for me.”
The WSU
roster has undergone significant shakeup since Franks decided in March to test
the NBA waters. Malachi Flynn, the Cougars’ starting point guard and Franks’
closest confidant, transferred to San Diego State, leaving Franks as the only
returning double-digit scorer on Ernie Kent’s roster.
“We pretty
much talk every day,” Franks said of Flynn. “I wish him nothing but the best
and he wishes me nothing but the best, but I feel like the two point guards
coming in are going to do a great job of leading this team in that point guard
role.”
Kent went
shopping to replace Flynn and landed a pair of junior college point guards,
Ahmed Ali and Jervae Robinson, who respectively scored 17.9 and 12.5 ppg last season.
In addition to Franks, WSU also returns 31-game starter Viont’e Daniels (9 ppg,
71 3-pointers) and 11-game starter Carter Skaggs (8.2 ppg, 69 3s).
::::::::::::::::::::::
June 7-8:
WSU Regents slate retreat in Woodinville
May 31,
2018 from WSU Insider
PULLMAN,
Wash. – The Board of Regents of Washington State University will hold a retreat
June 7-8 in Woodinville, Wash.
The
retreat will begin with dinner, 6 p.m. Thursday, June 7, in the Gilman Room of
Willows Lodge, 14580 NE 145th, Woodinville, Wash.
On Friday,
June 8, the board will meet 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., at the Manor House at Chateau
Ste. Michelle Winery, 14111 NE 145th Street, Woodinville, WA.
Note: The
Board of Regents are scheduled to act on four agenda items on June 8. Members
of the public are invited to dial into this portion of the meeting beginning at
1:45 p.m. using the following numbers:
+1.408.740.7256
(United States)
+1.888.240.2560
(U.S. Toll Free)
Meeting
ID: 951 560 259
An
Executive Session will be held to consider matters as allowed by the Open
Public Meetings Act.
I. Regents
Breakfast
II.
Retreat Kickoff
III.
Presentation: Benchmarking – National & State Comparison
IV.
Presentation: WSU/UW Partnership – Marketing and Communication
V.
Presentation: #HealthyCougs: Student Health and Wellness at WSU
VI.
Regents Lunch
VII.
Presentation: President’s 2018-2019 Goals
VIII.
Presentation: Information Technology at WSU
IX. Action
Item 1: Finance and Human Resource Services Modernization Initiative Project
Budget
X. Action
Item 2: Finance and Human Resource Services Modernization Initiative Financing
Plan
XI. Action
Item 3: Athletics Budget
XII.
Action Item 4: Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine Statement of Commitment to
Graduate Medical Education
XIII.
Executive Session
XIV.
Public Comment
XV.
Closing
This
notice is being sent by the direction of the chair of the Board of Regents,
pursuant to the requirements of the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 42.30
RCW.
Questions
about the Board of Regents meeting and schedule may be directed to Desiree
Jacobsen, executive assistant to the Board of Regents, 509-335-4200.
