Washington State Cougars make wise move extending AD Pat Chun
This week Washington State Cougars Athletic Director Pat Chun signed a contract extension through the 2025–26 school year. It was a smart move by WSU’s administration.
Washington State Cougars Athletic Director Pat Chun will stick around Pullman, Washington for a bit longer. He signed an extension that keeps him at Wazzu through 2026. It was a great move by the Washington State University administration.
Chun got a nice pay raise as well. His last contract paid him a base salary of $650K per year; the new deal is worth $700K annually and increases each season by $50K through 2026. A wise use of public funds, and quite frankly, he’s earned it. The university got a bargain in the process.
Out front
One great thing about Chun is that he doesn’t hide behind a desk. Chun is visible and personable. Those skills help greatly as he works hard to fundraise for the WSU Athletic Department. Before the pandemic, Chun made great strides when it came to bringing in money.
More with less
One of Chun’s most significant accomplishments while at Washington State is keeping the athletic department competitive. The university has fewer resources than many of their Pac-12 counterparts, let alone the big shots in college athletics. According to USA Today, for the 2018-19 academic year, Wazzu brought in $71.7M. That was 56th among public schools and last in the conference. For perspective, Texas was number one overall at 223.9M. Washington led the Pac-12 with $133.8M. Cougars athletics has approximately 54 percent of the revenue of their in-state rivals.
Private schools such as Stanford and USC aren’t held to the same disclosure standards as public ones. You can bet they are much closer to the top than the bottom.
Even with that huge handicap, Chun hired quality coaches for the school’s premier athletic teams. On the football side, last January, he brought in Nick Rolovich last year from Hawaii to replace Mike Leach.
When Chun arrived in 2018, he inherited a basketball team that hadn’t won over 13 games since 2011. He gave head coach Ernie Kent a year to prove himself. After an 11-21 season, Chun saw enough of Kent’s team to move on. He found a young promising head coach at the University of San Francisco, Kyle Smith, and brought him in.
Balancing Act
The pandemic hit college sports programs just as hard as most other businesses. Washington State athletics took a huge hit in their money coffers. So much so, the Cougars reported a near $32M deficit as of January 2021. However, he is committed to reversing the downward trend and balancing his department’s budget by FY 2023.
In demand
Chun’s name surfaced recently as a candidate for two high-profile A.D. openings, Northwestern and Kansas. He interviewed at Northwestern but pulled his name out of consideration. A warning shot to the WSU administration? Maybe. It’s more likely that other schools noticed what Chun accomplished in his three-plus years on the Palouse.
Related Story: 2021 WSU Cougars football schedule
What do you think about Pat Chun’s extension at Washington State? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.