Washington State AD Anne McCoy Talks Track & Field Cuts, Pac-12 Changes, Financial Challenges

Joe Londergan | Jul 5, 2025

Mar 14, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Washington State Cougars mascot Butch during the game against the Stanford Cardinal at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

It's been an eventful summer so for Washington State University Athletics, in both positive and negative ways.

Washington State Athletic Director hosted a Zoom call with members of the media this week to discuss several major developments for the Cougars' athletic department. Namely, WSU made the decision to make significant cuts to the track program, including eliminating all field events. The Pac-12 also formally added Texas State to the league this week, with the Bobcats' membership taking effect in July of 2026.

Watch the full media availability below.

NOTES

- On eliminating field events and cutting back sprints and hurdles in the track program: "We are looking at really focusing on the distance portion of our program and you know centralizing our resources into a place that's a little more focused as opposed to being as broad-based as it was this past year."

"The decision was made not for financial reasons as much as they were for competitive success and the ability to really provide a high level experience."

- On sending out institutional NIL agreements this past week: "It's been something that's been a long time in the making as we were working through the house settlement, and implementation, and how we would be opting in as an institution. I would say it's required a tremendous amount of partnership both within the athletics department and with campus, working through a lot of different procedures, whether it be through legal, through purchasing, through business affairs and and everything that goes into this to do it the right way."

- On further Pac-12 expansion and Power Five status: "Membership and the media will continue to be areas that the the Pac-12, you know, evaluates. But no immediate plans that I'm aware of."

"Autonomy Five or the Power Five status is such a kind of a interesting thing with the NCAA and that there's a lot of, you know it was basically a vote that took the Pac-12 out of that legislative part of the structure of the NCAA. But there really is no mechanism as to how even the current Power Four conferences or institutions within those conferences, there's no benchmark, there's nothing to reach that you all of a sudden then are considered, or a process in place. So, I think that's certainly something we and the Pac-12 commissioner and the Pac-12 have been, you know, contemplating and we certainly did last week in Washington is, you know, what does that look like? You know, how do you become a power conference, so to speak, whether it's four, five, three, six, you know, whatever it is."

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