As the athletic conference crumbles around him, WSU President Kirk Schulz issued his first public comments Monday, asking fans not to lash out and to be patient as they explore what's next.
The Pac-12 is down to four members now, as other universities signed deals with the Big 10 and Big 12 late last week.
Right now, Washington State, Oregon State, Cal and Stanford are left searching for what to do next.
In a message to the fanbase Monday, Schulz outlined what happened leading up to Friday's exit by the University of Washington and University of Oregon.
Schulz said the Pac-12 Board of Directors met 30 times over the past year to work on the media rights deal.
"During this time, we had multiple media partners spend months discussion media deals only to drop out at the last minute, mostly due to the rapidly changing sports media environment," Schulz said.
Schulz outlined how Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff presented the board Tuesday with what Schulz called "and innovative and forward-looking partnership proposal with Apple."
He said the model carried an opportunity to "significantly grow the revenue coming into each school over the next several years."
Schulz said he was eager to see how this could work, comparing it to what Apple has done with Major League Soccer.
He said they ended the board meeting Thursday "with a strong feeling of staying together, pursuing a new partnership with Apple and moving forward with conference expansion."
Schulz said they were "shocked" Friday when UW and Oregon announced they had accepted invitations to join the Big 10.
"I genuinely felt that on Friday morning we would sign the needed paperwork, finalize the deal with Apple and move the Pac-12 toward a new and brighter future," Schulz said.
Schulz said immediately after that development, he and Chun started reaching out across the country looking for options.
He said the conversations are confidential, so they can't say who they are talking to and when.
"At this point, we are pursuing every possible opportunity to ensure that we have multiple options moving forward," he said.
Schulz said he's standing up a group of faculty, staff, administrators and student leaders by the end of the week to work toward what's next.
"I know many of you are angry and upset by the situation WSU finds itself in — and it is tempting to lash out," Schulz wrote in the letter, which you can read at this link. As President of WSU, my responsibility at this time is to work with Pat Chun on as many options as possible for Cougar Athletics moving forward — taking into account things like institutional fit, geography and travel costs, competitiveness, and financial security."
Schulz said no matter what happens, things will be different in the weeks, months and years to come.
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