Hi Bill. This is The Coug Sports Blog talking. I've got one big request for you and I think you need to make it happen this Summer. I know you would love to lock up Oregon at Qwest Field. I know that First and Goal has told you that Oregon is the bigger potential money draw and the two teams against each other virtually assures a sellout each year and big public interest in King County. I know you have visions of completely drowning out the Huskies one week out of the football season and making it all about the Northwest version of the World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party (Georgia vs. Florida in Jacksonville).

The thing is, I think you have the wrong team targeted.  I understand why you think Oregon is a great fit. You know better than anyone EXACTLY how much they make per home game and how much they make when they travel to Pullman. You can do the math and make this a profitable venture for them. No one ever said revenue had to be 50/50. It could be 60/40 and still make WSU a huge sum of money. You also understand just how much the Oregon group hates to travel to Pullman and you also understand just how important King County could be to grow the Duck brand/donor base all while undermining the Huskies.

Here's the problem. Duck fans don't get it. They don't understand that they are picking up money in capital donations each year and their operating budget is huge BUT they still finished running in the red by more than 600 hundred thousand dollars as recently as last fiscal year. They missed on more than $2.2 million dollars in pledged donations because of the downturn in the economy. You know that and apparently everyone knows that except for Duck fans.  I know that you are just waiting for the new AD to come in and look at his operating budget. It won't take long to see easy money to fill that donations gap. Which is why I would say stop trying to climb that mountain now.

I hope you're enjoying the fishing trip right now and that you're locking down those big ticket donors. When you come back to Seattle in a few weeks I hope you put all that Duck thinking aside though. I hope you meet with First and Goal again and say, "We want to focus on an annual neutral site game with the Oregon State Beavers." Ask them what that revenue stream would look like.

Expansion to the Pac-12 has brought the issue of TV dollars to the forefront of conversation these days. It's painfully obvious that the Pac-10 is being compensated like a league that isn't in the BCS with their current contract. Washington State pulled in 6.3 million dollars in 2009. Indiana University of the Big Ten pulled in 20 million dollars because they split revenue equally and becasue the Big Ten Commissioner is actually competent at his job. Retired Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen (UW grad) clearly was not.

Our current TV contract runs through the end of the 2011 season. In other words, we must endure our crap contract for two more football seasons. The pain is going to be compounded for WSU this year since we won't be very good. We might actually be closer to $5.5 million in TV revenue this season since we don't get the Notre Dame payout that we got last year. That's still better than the University of Utah which will have to deal with about 1.5-2 million dollars because of the Mountain West's contract with Versus. No wonder they are anxious to split as quickly as possible.

Ever wonder how the Pac-10 TV contract works? There has been a lot of talk about Big XII unequal revenue sharing and Pac-10 equitable revenue sharing. We know that the Pac-10 doesn't have revenue sharing across the board like the Big Ten. Jon Wilner has a fantastic explanation of how it works here . Basically there is a minimum amount that each team is guaranteed. That's the floor and then each game that's picked up thereafter for television basically gets you a bonus check. That's why USC was at close to 12 million last year and WSU sat at 6 million. I have no idea what the Pac-10 "floor" is but it would be interesting to know.

Things get really fascinating for WSU in 2011. University of Utah is on record as saying they are moving to the Pac-10 next year. Colorado had originally planned on 2012 as well. However, those plans are in flux now. What does all that mean for TV revenue splits?

Ted Miller had a really interesting blog post that told us Colorado and Utah are coming in as UNequals. Colorado will be a full revenue sharing member but Utah will not get 100% of their Pac-10 share until the 2014-2015 season.

Here are the two implications for WSU:

Bill Moos was on the west side of the state this week and we learned some interesting things about Qwest game plans, Donnie Marbut, and Pac-12 alignment. The most encouraging thing is the outreach he's making across the state. His past three days were filled with meetings that ranged from high-end donors to interviews with key press outlets. Yesterday, Moos was the first Pac-10 AD to talk publicly on Pac-12 expansion when he was interviewed by Ian Furness on KJR. Furness, was absolutely giddy about landing that interview. Here are a few things we learned in talking with Moos, his staff, and a couple of boosters he met with. Moos is planning to be over in this direction about every three weeks with presence among donors and key reporters. Great news for WSU's athletic department profile and donation potential. You'd be shocked….and VERY depressed at how little this was done with the previous regime.

Here are four things we learned that you'll find interesting:

1) The twist on plans for the Qwest game in 2012 and beyond.

We told you about plans for a Red River Shootout style rivalry with Oregon about a week ago. You can read about what that would look like here . It's an awesome plan and it remains the target scenario and it would start in 2012 ideally. We'd do it every year and split seats and revenue down the middle. It would be a true neutral site game with about 3 million in proceeds to split every year. The pitch to Oregon has been made and will be again when the new AD is in office. It's pretty compelling for them as they hate to travel to Pullman and they only make about 250K a trip when they visit us. So, they'd make about the same amount as they do at Autzen when giving up a home game to play at Qwest and they'd make about 1-2 million additional dollars in years when we are giving up the home game. Additionally, there is big time value in being the "home" team in Seattle as they'd be able to have recruits on their sidelines and obviously doing that right in the heart of Huskyville is something that's very appealing to Cougs and Ducks alike. This is a no-brainer scenario and unless the Ducks hire Scott Woodward, Jr. we think that it will be locked up sometime this Summer.