WSU ushers in 'new era,' introduces AD Jon Haarlow

Apr. 21—PULLMAN — Washington State University’s newly minted vice president and athletic director Jon Haarlow does not recall a specific moment in which he ascended from interim AD to the full-time post.

“I was on the road, and it wasn’t exactly like this type of moment. It was kind of like a build-up conversation,” said Haarlow in an interview with the Tribune following his introductory news conference in the Alger Family Club Room of Gesa Field on Monday. “And so it all happened so fast, and we were right in the middle of meetings and so we just kept rolling. I’m not sure it really totally settled in until I was up there on the stage earlier, but I’m grateful for the opportunity.”

That idea “to just keep rolling,” was perhaps the most pivotal ingredient that allowed Haarlow to shed the interim tag, which he held for five months following the dismissal of his predecessor and former interim turned full-time AD Anne McCoy.

WSU president Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell said she made the call in elevating Haarlow.

“He performed incredibly well in the role as interim and I was looking for specific things,” Cantwell said during the news conference. “One is the ability to partner with me, and that’s crucial as we go into this coming year.”

Cantwell also pointed to Haarlow’s hiring of football coach Kirby Moore following the abrupt departure of the previous coach, Jimmy Rogers, after one year and the hiring of women’s soccer coach Chris Citowicki as contributing factors as well.

Rather than use a traditional search firm, Cantwell said she applied “non-traditional due diligence,” in which she spoke with fellow university presidents, athletic directors and other relevant individuals about what the next chapter of college athletics looks like in order to inform her search for WSU’s full-time AD.

“This is such a change moment that for me,” Cantwell said, “the traditional search process wasn’t necessarily going to get us someone who had that entrepreneurial spirit and was able to really partner up with me.”

Haarlow enters the role with Pac-12 holdovers WSU and Oregon State on the precipice of the new Pac-12 Conference, which will see six new football-sponsoring schools and Gonzaga join the conference on July 1.

WSU’s new Pac-12 colleagues like Boise State, Texas State and San Diego State are smaller than legacy Pac-12 schools USC, UCLA and Oregon, meaning that WSU has and will take home a smaller media rights share.

That deficit, coupled with the increasing necessity to competitively compensate student-athletes through revenue sharing and name, image and likeness deals — lest they transfer to other schools that can pay them — means that WSU must identify alternative funding sources to best position itself for present and future success in a climate where the next round of conference realignment is inevitable and imminent.

Haarlow declined to share the football or basketball programs’ exact revenue sharing and NIL figures, though he said that he believes WSU is “in the top quarter of the (Pac-12)” for football.

Will WSU ever disclose its exact NIL budget?

“We want to make sure that we’re keeping our dollars tight, and that way, we don’t want a competitive disadvantage to what other schools are doing, or allow that to stymie any momentum that we may have because of non-dollar figure types of things,” Haarlow said. “And so we’ll be anxious to see if, culturally, if any of the other schools ever get to a place where they disclose that. But for now, we’ll continue to grow that pot.”

A Peoria, Illinois, native, Haarlow came to WSU in 2021 as senior associate athletic director and chief financial officer after holding similar roles in college athletic departments for about a decade prior.

Haarlow said he has seen WSU go through hard times and believes that his skillset and experience equip him to lead WSU Athletics.

“We’re headed to a new Pac-12 Conference. We’re headed into a new era,” Haarlow said during his news conference. “Our era, our next is now, but we need everyone to attack this new season. Lock arms together. I’m energized and humbled.”

With University of Kentucky spinning its athletic department off into an LLC and other athletic departments and conferences entertaining a range of partnerships, including private equity, Haarlow said he is keeping an open mind.

“I don’t think we can turn our backs on anything quite honestly,” Haarlow said. “This is gonna have to be a multi-faceted approach, donations, partnerships, deals, ticket sales. We’re going to go on a full-fledged attack in that regard. So a part of my job is to continue to be in all sorts of conversations at the national level, so that those groups, partnerships like that, know that we’re ready. We’re here. We’re ready for when the next shoe falls in the NCAA, because we know it’s coming.”

Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.

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