HCA: Mike
Leach ranked as 31st best head coach in college football
The Cougars head man was 18th in the 2017
rankings
By Nick
Nordi Coug Center June 26, 2018
Athlon
Sports released their top-130 coaches in college football for the 2018 season
on Monday and Washington State head coach Mike Leach found himself at 31st.
After a 9-4 season in 2017, Leach dropped 13 spots from 18th in last years
ranking.
Athlon
made it known that this was not just a team ranking for the upcoming season.
Everything was taken into consideration from their overall success to
recruiting and how well a coach can develop talent.
Since
being hired as the Cougars head coach in 2012, he has compiled a 38-38 record
while going 26-28 in conference. If you were to look at the past three years
however you would never have thought he was .500 as they have gone 26-13 and
been to three straight bowl games and has finished in the top-3 in the Pac-12
North each of those years.
Prior
to his current stint in Pullman he had a 84-43 record at Texas Tech from
2000-09 and led them to 10 bowl games over those years where he finished 5-4 -
he was fired before coaching in the bowl game in 2009.
Leach
ranked as the 5th best coach in the conference with Kyle Whittingham (Utah) at
19, Chip Kelly (UCLA) at 12, David Shaw (Stanford) at 11, and Chris
Petersen (Washington) at 4. Leach was just ahead of USC head coach Clay Helton
who ranked at 38th and Kevin Sumlin at 42, who was hired at Arizona this year.
For a full ranking of Athlon’s rankings of all 130 head coaches in college
football, click here.
………….
Comparing Pac-12
revenue distributions to Power Five peers: Bad and getting worse (as
the Big Ten cashes in)
By Jon
Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News
Published
June 25, 2018 at 10:02 am
Updated June 26, 2018 at 3:31 am
Updated June 26, 2018 at 3:31 am
The number had been whispered, rumored, reported, projected
and, in some circles, expected.
The Big Ten would distribute $50 million to each campus in
the 2018 fiscal year — an increase of approximately 40 percent year-over-year
resulting from a new TV deal with Fox .
Late last week, the momentous payout was confirmed.
Michigan’s annual financial presentation to the university’s
regents showed a $51 million distribution from the conference for FY18 (via the
Detroit News) and a projected payout of $52 million for FY19.
Those numbers place the B1G on different tier from even the
SEC. They also help fill in more pixels in the financial image of the Power
Five — and, more specifically, the Pac-12’s place therein.
In recent weeks, we’ve heard a university president
(Washington State’s Kirk Schulz) express concern about conference distributions
and an athletic director (Arizona State’s Ray Anderson) voice dissatisfaction
with the Pac-12 Networks revenue.
Why does that particular cash path — from the conference to
the campuses — matter?
Distributions from HQ, which includes revenue from media
rights, the College Football Playoff and March Madness, makes up 25 to 50
percent of athletic department income for Pac-12 schools.
Smaller distributions than Power Five peers make it more
difficult to compete for coaches, to build facilities, to schedule for success
— non-conference games aren’t cheap — and to provide competitive training,
nutrition and wellness opportunities for athletes.
(Money = resources = recruiting = success = more money.)
Once the Big Ten’s big number became official via Michigan’s
presentation, the Hotline decided context was necessary:
Exactly how will the Pac-12 payouts compare to those of the
other Power Fives over the course of the next six years — until the end of the
Pac-12’s current Tier I contracts with ESPN and Fox?
The comps below assume that the rates of increase in payouts
remain constant across the conferences.
There will undoubtedly be some fluctuation — the size of a
payout in 2022, for example, will partly depend on success in College Football
Playoffs and NCAA tournaments that have not yet been played.
But those fluctuations should be incremental over the sweep
of our timeframe: The media rights contracts, which are signed and sealed, will
make up the bulk of the annual distributions.
Notes on the following:
* Each conference reports on a different schedule, so
projections are necessary in some cases.
* Pac-12 projection of $33.5 million for FY18 constitutes an
8.4 percent increase over the confirmed FY17 figure of $30.9 million. (The
majority of the increase is sourced in the escalator clause in the Tier I
deal.)
* To repeat: Projections assume comparable rates of increase
across all conference.
*** Pac-12 vs. Big Ten
Big Ten: $51 million per school in FY18 (confirmed; see
above link to Detroit News)
Pac-12: $33.5 million per school in FY18 (projected)
FY18 difference per school: $17.5 million
Pac-12 cumulative per-school deficit from FY19 to FY24
(example: USC vs. Ohio State): $105 million
*** Pac-12 vs. SEC
SEC: $42 million per school in FY18 (projected)
Pac-12: $33.5 million per school in FY18 (projected)
FY18 difference per school: $8.5 million
Pac-12 cumulative per-school deficit from FY19 to FY24
(example: Washington vs. LSU): $51 million
*** Pac-12 vs. Big 12
Big 12: $38 million per school in FY18 (confirmed)
Pac-12: $33.5 million per school in FY18 (projected)
FY18 difference per school: $4.5 million
Pac-12 cumulative per-school deficit from FY19 to FY24 (for
example: Utah vs. Oklahoma State): $27 million
(Note: Big 12 figure includes an average of $1.5 million per
school in Tier III media rights, which are generated on the campus level and
not distributed by the conference office. Texas and Oklahoma collect far more
annually through their deals with ESPN and Fox, respectively, but most schools
are believed to earn $1 million – $2 million in net profit from local rights.)
*** Pac-12 vs. ACC
Pac-12: $33.5 million in FY18 (projected)
ACC: $28 million per school in FY18 (projected)
FY18 difference per school: $5.5 million
Pac-12 cumulative per-school deficit from FY19 to FY24 (for
example: Arizona State vs. Wake Forest): $10 million
(Note: ACC Network launches in FY20, at which point school
distributions are expected to jump to approximately $40 million. The Pac-12
total deficit of $10 million includes one year without, and five years with,
the ACC Network.)
The situation, as it appears, should be deeply concerning
for Pac-12 schools.
As we’ve stated before, commissioner Larry Scott, through
sound strategy and good fortune, got the best deal possible on the Tier I
contracts (from a valuation standpoint) with Fox and ESPN.
The Pac-12 Networks, however, aren’t providing nearly the
same return to campuses as comparable ventures in the other conferences.
(That fact will be hammered home, yet again, when the ACC
Network launches next year and immediately zooms past the Pac-12 Networks in
the cash distributed.)
The Heisman Trophy, the Pac-12 Networks, and the exposure
equation for Khalil Tate and Justin Herbert
The Hotline first sounded the revenue alarm three years ago
with an analysis of projected media revenue (i.e., football and basketball
postseason cash excluded).
The conference disagreed with my conclusions back then and
continues to be optimistic about the Pac-12 Networks’ business model and the
value of Pac-12 content during the next Tier I negotiations.
And yes: All signs point to a slew of bidders (legacy and
new media) for the Pac-12 media rights starting in FY25 — the value of live
sports is only increasing.
But it’s worth noting that the future value of Pac-12
content will be inexorably tied to football success … and football success
depends on resources … and resources are linked, in part, to conference
distributions.
In other words, the revenue deficit facing athletic
departments over the next six years could adversely affect the football product
to such an extent that the conference doesn’t get max value for the content.
That’s not necessarily the likely outcome, but it cannot be
discounted as a possibility.
Six years is a long time, and the clock ticks more slowly on
the campuses than it does in the conference office.
…………
Pullman stays near the top among fastest growing cities in
Eastern Washington
From
Pullman Radio 6/26/2018
Pullman continues to be one of Eastern Washington's fastest
growing, larger cities, this decade. The
Washington State Office of Financial Management has released its city
population estimates based on April 1st data.
Pullman's population grew by about 1.5% last year, adding around 500
people, to just under 34,000. The city's
population has grown by 13% so far this decade, adding nearly 4,000 people.
Outside of the Tri-Cities, Pullman is the fastest growing larger city in
Eastern Washington since 2010. Pullman
is still the 36th largest city in the state.
…………
Groundbreaking Wednesday for new WSU research building
From Pullman
Radio Tue 6/26/2018
There will be a
groundbreaking ceremony for the latest facility in Washington State
University's V. Lane Rawlins Research and Education Complex in Pullman
Wednesday morning. The 4th life sciences research building will be constructed
in the complex across Stadium Way from Martin Stadium. WSU President Dr. Kirk
Schulz and new Dean of the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource
Sciences Dr. Andre Wright will take part.
The ceremony starts at 10:00.
Attendees are asked to register for the event. You can find a link for
registration here https://universityevents.wsu.edu/plantsciences
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::
TYLER HILINSKI Washington State football player had brain
damage at suicide
Jun 26, 2018
PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — The family of the Washington State
football player who died of suicide in January said the 21-year-old quarterback
had extensive brain damage that's been linked to concussions from playing the
sport.
Tyler Hilinski was found dead in his apartment with a
gunshot wound and a suicide note on Jan. 16.
Mark and Kym Hilinski told NBC's "Today" show on
Tuesday that the Mayo Clinic requested to do an autopsy of their son's brain.
The interview comes alongside the debut of a new Sports Illustrated documentary
about the family's search for answers.
The family in those interviews said the autopsy results
indicated that their son had signs of extensive brain damage known as chronic
traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, which has been found in hundreds of former
NFL players.
The sophomore quarterback was last seen alive the same day,
when he dropped a teammate off on campus for morning class. Police said the
rifle belonged to a teammate and that Hilinski took it without the teammate's
knowledge on or before Jan. 12.
Kym Hilinski said they were shocked and numb after finding
out that he had shot himself. She said he'd never shot a gun until the day
before he died.
There were no verbal signs that the young football player
was suffering. His mother said he was quiet, reserved but always happy.
"Did football kill Tyler?...I don't think so. Did he
get CTE from football? Probably. Was that the only thing that attributed to his
death? I don't know," Kym Hilinski said in the documentary.
The family's other son also appeared in the documentary.
Ryan Hilinski was noted as a star quarterback at his high school in California
and is set to play at the University of South Carolina with the support of his
parents.
#
Ryan Hilinski said his brother's brain damage diagnosis
scared him and made him worried he may suffer what his brother went through,
but that he's still committed to playing football.
"I think Tyler would want me to do the same thing. I
don't think he'd want me to stop," Ryan Hilinski said.
Tyler Hilinski appeared in eight games during his sophomore
season, throwing for 1,176 yards and seven touchdowns. His most memorable
outing came in the second week of the season, when he led Washington State from
a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Boise State 47-44 in triple
overtime. Hilinski threw for 240 yards and three touchdowns coming off the
bench and was carried off the field after the victory.
His only start came in the Holiday Bowl against Michigan
State, although he played extensively in a loss to Arizona. He was expected to
be the starting quarterback this coming fall during his junior year.
Washington State said it's adding more safeguards to help
students, including a second formal mental health screening for all football
players and meetings with all varsity sports athletes to consider mental health
risks.
The family has started the Hilinski's Hope Foundation to
raise awareness about mental health wellness for student-athletes.
#
