Washington St. AD says College Football Expansion Inevitable
College football expansion talk isn't just being kept alive by the media, a prominent administrator jumps in the fray...
Newly minted Washington State athletics director Bill Moos was asked by AM 950 KJR in Seattle if expansion was inevitable:
"I think so and I think television is going to drive that. There will be changes in several conferences and whether the Pac-10 is a part of it or not, that jury is still out. But there is a possibility...
After having conversations with our new (Pac-10) commissioner Larry Scott, I really believe the landscape of college athletics is going to change and probably within the next 2 or 3 years."
Moos goes on to quote TV figures claiming each Big 10 school receives "between 20 and 22 million dollars a year, just from TV revenue."
That hits a sore spot with Pac-10 officials and the former Oregon athletics director was able to easily recite his best year in Eugene by comparison.
"Our biggest year at Oregon I think we got 8 or 9 million. That's when we were championship caliber. And we're going into television negotiations in a year."
Whether those negotiations will begin with a Pac-10 that is expanding still remains to be seen. Cue the familiar "wine and cheese" routine:
"The Pac-10 is a very proud conference, not just athletically. We've won more national championships, by far, than any other conference but also academically. So when our CEO's, our presidents and chancellors, sit down and look at who would be appropriate to come to our party there aren't that many on the list that can keep both the athletic and academic standards that have become really a very big part of what the Pac-10 is all about."
Moos and others in the Pac-10 know that these upcoming decisions are not driven by athletic and academic standards. They're driven by money and legacy. If Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany retired today, his legacy would be of a man who ran a conference that slipped into second class citizenship behind the SEC. He and his bosses, the Big Ten presidents, want that perception changed.
Expansion is the mechanism of choice in the pursuit of additional profit and glory. The Pac-10 is welcome to give chase or be washed into the sea.
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