SPOKANE — Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk has applied for the same job at San Diego State, and WSU officials on Saturday already moved to fill his position on an interim basis.
San Diego State has scheduled a Monday press conference to reveal its choice, but several newspapers in California and Washington are reporting it will be Sterk.
Washington State president Elson Floyd believes Sterk is gone, announcing on Saturday that associate athletic director Anne McCoy will be interim director of Cougar sports programs.
“We appreciate the contributions that Jim Sterk has made to WSU during his tenure as athletic director,” Floyd said in a press release from Pullman. “He has positioned WSU athletics in such a way as to continue a high level of competitiveness and excellence within the Pac-10 and across the nation.”
Sterk did not return e-mail messages from The Associated Press. Washington State sports information director Bill Stevens would confirm only that Sterk has applied to SDSU and that a decision was expected Monday.
Sterk, 53, has been athletic director at the Pullman school since 2000, a period that includes unparalleled success in the football and men’s basketball programs at WSU. The football team had three consecutive 10-win seasons early in the decade and went to a Rose Bowl. But the past two seasons have been among the worst in program history and attendance is declining.
In men’s basketball, Sterk’s hiring of Dick Bennett — and then Bennett’s son, Tony — revived a moribund program, and the Cougars have gone to three consecutive postseason tournaments, the longest stretch in program history.
The success has come even though Washington State has the smallest budget and the smallest market in the Pacific-10 Conference. Yet Sterk has operated the athletic programs in the black, without state subsidies — except for Title IX scholarship help that all state college programs get. He also has raised private funds to make improvements on the football stadium.
San Diego State is a member of the lower-profile Mountain West Conference, and Sterk would be the second athletic director the league has recently bagged from the Pac-10. Jim Livengood left Arizona for UNLV recently.
Various newspapers reported that Sterk initially turned down the SDSU job, but decided to accept it this week.
Sterk, a Western Washington University graduate, came to WSU from Portland State in July, 2000, a choice of former WSU president V. Lane Rawlins. He replaced Rick Dickson.
Sterk also served in various athletic department positions at Tulane, Seattle Pacific, Maine and North Carolina.
He was reportedly paid about $300,000 per year.
Possible candidates to replace Sterk include WSU senior associate athletic director John Johnson and former Oregon athletic director and Cougar football player Bill Moos.
Floyd said he will announce the members of a search advisory committee next week, and hopes to have a permanent replacement for Sterk within a month.
“Under Jim’s leadership, our competitiveness within the Pac-10 Conference and the graduation rates and academic performance of our student-athletes has been greatly enhanced,” Floyd said. “The future of Cougar athletics is bright indeed.”
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