Bill Moos Named New Nebraska Athletic Director

Nebraska has named Bill Moos, formerly the Athletic Director of Washington State as their new Athletic Director. Moos, who has no ties to Nebraska, was the former Athletic Director at Oregon, and the University of Montana.

Moos has no specific ties to Nebraska. Moos has overseen the revival of the Washington State Cougars football program. With the hire of Mike Leach, Moos has shown the ability to think outside the box when hiring coaches.

Moos does have experience on the football field, as he was a three year letter winner while playing on the offensive line at Washington State. Moos earned All-Pac-8 Conference First Team Honors in 1972.

Moos left Oregon in 2007, after Phil Knight and him could not agree on funding for a new arena for the Oregon Basketball teams. Moos also is older for an AD, sitting a 67 years old.

The hire checks of the box for hiring a sitting Power Five AD. Moos also has experience with donors, and has shown the ability to get stadium improvements and projects completed. Washington State has not won a NCAA Championship since before World War 2.

Fundraising under Moos has shown a marked increase, with an 81% increase in gifts since Moos became the AD. In addition, Moos has had 45 All-American athletes while at Washington State.

What is apparent, is Nebraska feels like they have the right man, and were willing to open the check book to pay for him.

From the Athletic Department release:

In his seven years at Washington State, Moos secured a 10-year, $35 million marketing rights agreement with IMG College and led a $130 million addition and remodel of WSU’s football stadium. As the dean of Pac-12 athletic directors, he was in a leading position in securing the conference’s 12-year, $3 billion television contract with Fox and ESPN. In Moos’ time in Pullman, the Cougar Athletic Fund’s Annual Giving program has seen an 81 percent increase in gifts. From 2010-16, Cougar student-athletes and coaches earned 805 academic all-conference honors, 130 all-conference selections, 45 All-America accolades and three Pac-12 coach-of-the-year honors

Moos led Oregon’s athletics from 1995-2007, during which time the athletic department grew to national prominence – its annual budget rose from $18.5 million in his first year to more than $40 million by 2007 and became self-sufficient. In Moos’ Oregon tenure, the Ducks won 13 Pac-10 championships in six different sports; and UO student-athletes earned 722 academic all-conference selections, 34 Academic All-America selections, nine NCAA post Graduate Scholars and one NCAA Top VIII Award.

Moos came to Oregon after five years as the University of Montana’s director of athletics. He began his athletics career in 1982 as assistant athletics director at Washington State and also was the school’s associate director. He was director of development for more than five years and associate director for nearly two, supervising all external operations. For eight years prior to that, he managed and owned private businesses in Washington and Oregon.

Raised on a wheat and cattle ranch in eastern Washington, Moos went to high school in Olympia when his father was in the governor’s cabinet. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history in Pullman and was a three-year letterman in football. He co-captained Washington State’s 1972 team and was first-team All-Pac-8. He and his wife Kendra have three daughters, Christa, Brittany and Kaiti; and two sons, Bo and Benjamin.

Moos succeeds Shawn Eichorst, whose employment with the university ended Sept. 21.