San Diego State has scheduled a Monday press conference to reveal its choice, but the Spokesman-Review in Spokane and the San Diego Tribune are reporting that Sterk will fill the job.
A Tribune report Saturday said Sterk’s name was kept secret and not listed among three finalists because Sterk did not want his name revealed unless he was assured the position.
A WSU source said the 53-year-old Sterk had originally turned down the school, the Spokesman-Review reported, but when SDSU offered the job this past week, Sterk accepted.
Washington State president Elson Floyd believes Sterk is gone, announcing Saturday that associate athletic director Anne McCoy will be interim director of Cougars sports programs.
“We appreciate the contributions that Jim Sterk has made to WSU during his tenure as athletic director,” Floyd said Saturday 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 (Pacific-10 Conference) 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 Pac-10. Yet Sterk has operated the athletic programs in the black. 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 snagged from the Pac-10. Jim Livengood, another former WSU athletic director, recently left Arizona for UNLV.
Sterk, a Western Washington University graduate, went to WSU from Portland State in July 2000, the choice of former WSU president V. Lane Rawlins. He replaced Rick Dickson. He previously worked athletic department positions at Tulane, Seattle Pacific, Maine and North Carolina.
He was reportedly paid about $300,000 per year at WSU.
Possible candidates to replace Sterk include WSU senior associate athletic director John Johnson and former Oregon athletic director and Cougars football player Bill Moos.
A WSU source said Moos is interested in the position, the Spokesman-Review reported, though Moos’ agreement signed with Oregon when he left Eugene may be a factor. The noncompete agreement may have played a part in derailing Moos’ UNLV candidacy that eventually went to Livengood.
Floyd said he hopes to have a permanent replacement for Sterk within a month.
