Sports pioneer Moos fears for future of programs: ‘It’s against everything I believe college athletics should be about’

Apr. 7—For a man who will always bleed crimson, the current fate of Washington State University — and college athletics in general — causes him great distress.

Bill Moos spent 35 years helping lead athletic programs to some of their greatest heights. He led a facilities upgrade at Montana, which won a Division 1-AA national championship in football in his final year of 1995. Moos then helped guide Oregon from a Northwest also-ran into national prominence.

Moos returned to Pullman in 2010, hired the late Mike Leach as football coach and guided WSU’s largest sports facilities-building project before ending his career in 2021 after a four-year run at Nebraska.

“What a fabulous journey we were able to take in this profession. Lots of great memories,” said Moos, who is compiling a memoir he hopes to have published this year.

Now back at his small ranch in Valleyford, Moos recently watched much of what he built crumble.

The Pac -12 Conference disintegrated when Oregon and Washington bolted last August for the Big Ten Conference. Abandoned by the rest of the former schools, WSU and Oregon State were left to fend for themselves.

College players now can transfer to any school without penalty. Those same players can now sign name, image and likeness (NIL) contracts for financial gain, and the largest conferences are shepherding the vast resources to mostly benefit themselves.

“I wouldn’t have gotten into it,” Moos said, referring to his entrance to the profession at age 30 in 1982. Conference breakups, paying players and rule by television contracts are “against everything I believe college athletics should be about.”

Poster boy

Moos grew up in Edwall, Washington, before attending high school in Olympia. After graduation, he joined WSU to play football. The offensive lineman was named All-Pac-8 his senior year in 1972.

After…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/sports-pioneer-moos-fears-future-020300402.html

Author : The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Publish date : 2024-04-08 02:03:00

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