Gesa Field at Martin Stadium.
Nick Rolovich with Pat Chung, Washington State football.
Once again, the COVID-19 plays havoc to life in the United States. In the grand scheme of things, college sporting events may seem trivial, but they are important to many. As a result of the ongoing pandemic, the Pac-12 conference decided on a conference-only football schedule for the 2020 season last Friday. It’s a move that will have profound consequences for the Washington State Cougars football team, the athletic department, and the university as a whole.
Here are three of the biggest impacts.
The Mike Leach era of Washington State Cougars football is over. He moved on to Mississippi State and was replaced by former University of Hawaii head coach Nick Rolovich. In a typical year, one without a pandemic, changing head football coaches is a huge undertaking. Under the current circumstances, its a nightmare scenario.
On January 13, 2020, Rolovich was hired as the next Washington State football coach. Again, in a typical year, it’s plenty of time to assemble a staff, get to know players, and start building a recruiting base in the state. That was six months ago to the day, and the world has changed.
In March, coronavirus forced colleges to shut down their athletic programs to adhere to social distancing requirements. Rolovich had no personal contact with his players and couldn’t host or visit recruits. What’s worse is the new offensive coordinator Brian Smith and new defensive coordinator Jake Dickert had very little time to work with the team.
There was no spring practice to put new systems into place. All the coaches had were video conferences to explain their new formations, plays, and language to the players. In short, the new regime could describe what they wanted to do but had no means of putting them into practice.
Last month, students were allowed back on campus for “phased in” voluntary workouts of no more than five people at a time. The team won’t begin enhanced training (i.e., film, weights, and walkthroughs) until July 22. Fall training camp starts the following day. That means seven months will have passed between hiring Rolovich and players on the field, implementing an entirely new football system.
Rolovich had three non-conference games to acclimate players to his systems, until Friday. Now the Washington State Cougars get thrown into the conference fire on September 26, with no games in hand to modify or adjust plans. With limited time to put systems into place and no games under their belt to use them, it’s welcome to Pac-12 football Nick Rolovich.
One more thing, none of the quarterbacks on Wazzu’s roster have taken a snap in a college football game — a nightmare scenario indeed.
Snack Bar at WSU Bohler Athletic Center.
Washington State is at a disadvantage in terms of finances. Compared to other college football facilities, Martin Stadium is small. Cougars fans like to think of it as intimate. The gameday atmosphere is almost unbeatable. But a facility with approximately 33,000 seats doesn’t bring in the kind of money that playing at the Rose Bowl or Husky Stadium does.
Every home game played at Martin Stadium is the university’s chance to bring in revenue. At best this year, the Cougars would be playing to a quarter of capacity. Attendance wise, each game day now brings in 75 percent less money. Further, cutting two home games (Houston and Idaho) makes the hole deeper.
Last season the Cougars drew 142,733 for five home games for an average attendance of 28,547. Assuming this year’s attendance remained flat per game, Wazzu could expect 199,826 spectators to flow through the gates of Martin Stadium for their seven scheduled 2020 home games.
If Wazzu played each of their seven home games to 25 percent capacity, that’s a maximum season gate of 57,666. Subtract a pair of non-conference games, and now WSU can, at most, expect 41,190 fans to attend. That’s a loss of 158,632 tickets sold in addition to the parking, concessions, and merchandise revenue that each person spends.
According to Theo Lawson of the Spokane Spokesman-Review, Washington State University Athletics was facing a $99.3M operating deficit in 2020, before COVID-19. Football is the cash-cow of any athletic program. Assuming the average cost of attendance for a WSU football game (all-in) is $100, approximately $15M less revenue will come into the school this year. The increased shortfall puts an additional strain on the university’s finite finances.
Washington State Cougars at Cheez-it Bowl. (Photo by Trevor Cokley via dvids hub)
Playing in a bowl game, no matter how big or small, is a good thing for a college football program, not including any additional financial rewards. It gives teams an extra month of practice they wouldn’t have. Additionally, the postseason experience is a bonding time for the team.
The Cougs were a borderline bowl team to start with because of the coaching change. Taking the three non-conference games off their schedule makes it that much harder for Washington State to reach the postseason.
A college football team has to finish the year with a .500 record or above to qualify for a bowl game. As of now, the Pac-12 plays nine conference games. Ending 4–5 this year won’t cut it. Therefore, we will assume someone at the Pac-12 office recognizes this dilemma and schedules a 10th conference game for member teams to have a better shot of playing postseason football.
Since Washington State already has five conference home games, an additional contest for them would be on the road. Their opponents can be one of two teams, Southern Cal or Arizona. A trip to the desert would be best for WSU, but not necessarily for the Pac-12. The Trojans are preseason South Division favorites and a marquee school in college football.
USC’s options for adding another game are hosting either Washington State or Oregon State. Depending on whose predictions you believe, the Cougars and Beavers are close to even, as lower mid-pack teams in the conference. Some have WSU as the better squad, and others favor OSU (that’s why they play the games). So if the teams are close to equal, the Washington State name carries more “gravitas” due to their recent success. Poll voters will give more weight to a WSU-USC matchup.
Washington State likely would have won two of their non-conference games and possibly all three. Then they would have needed to win three or four conference games to reach a bowl. Without the non-conference games, the task is much more difficult. Five Pac-12 wins is a big ask for the team due to reason one.
How do you think a Pac-12 only schedule affects the Washington State Cougars? Let us know in the comments section below or on social media.