In formal introduction, new WSU AD Jon Haarlow ready to lead Cougars into 'most important fall in the history of WSU athletics'

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Apr. 20—PULLMAN — Before he started his day on Feb. 21 , Jon Haarlow had to head to the bookstore. He was in search of a crimson jersey, the kind that would fit in seamlessly at Washington State's Beasley Coliseum, where the Cougars were set to host conference power Saint Mary's later that evening .

At the time, Haarlow was WSU's interim athletic director, but he was ready to join the student section for that night's game. A few days prior, he delivered a speech in a management class. A group of students approached him afterward. He saw the same group of students a few days later in Spokane, where WSU fell to Gonzaga, and a few days after that, he used a mutual connection to learn they would be attending that night's game against Saint Mary's.

So when 7 p.m. rolled around and the Cougars tipped off against the Gaels, Haarlow found himself the middle of the student section, rocking a crimson jersey.

"I thought it created a little bit of emotion," Haarlow said. "We gotta win that student group back, which we've got some things moving forward on that. I take pride in being open and what that emotion is."

Almost two months later, Haarlow was formally introduced as WSU's 16th Athletic Director, elevating from the interim role with a news conference Monday at Gesa Field. Formerly the program's assistant vice president and senior deputy athletic director/chief operating officer, Haarlow sees that day — joining WSU students at a basketball game — as the type of leadership it will take to steer the Cougars forward to what he called "the most important fall in the history of WSU athletics," when the Cougs will begin competing in the reimagined Pac-12.

Haarlow, the second straight WSU Athletic Director to be elevated from the interim position, was hired using what university president Betsy Cantwell called "non-traditional due diligence." Instead of hiring a search firm, Cantwell relied on "number of consultants," she said, including presidents and athletic directors at other universities.

Cantwell, who said that required no financial commitment on WSU's part, seemed to indicate in a previous interview that the Cougars were considering hiring a trio of people to take on the athletic director role. On Monday, she clarified that was "conceptual," saying she always planned on the AD being one person.

Cantwell laid out her vision for the leadership of WSU's athletics programs as an athletic director, which is "an uber operational position. It's much more complicated than it was even when (previous AD) Pat Chun was here," Cantwell said.

"Then we need someone whose one job is revenue generation, not necessarily philanthropic, but ticket sales, concerts, all of the ways that you see out there others generating revenue. "Then the third leg is, if you look at — I'm gonna pick some of the most out there — Kentucky, which put all its athletics infrastructure in a separate organization, or Stanford and Maryland, which hired someone from private media to be a component of the team. I call that a dealmaker, someone who understands these kinds of really unusual deal structures that we're not used to, whether it's private money, whether it's putting conglomerates together."

WSU does have a chief operating officer, Brad Hutchins, who was hired in September. That means, Cantwell said, the Cougars will look to make one additional hire to complete her three-pronged approach to the top of the athletics institution.

Haarlow, who declined to say how much NIL money the Cougars' football and basketball programs are working with, joined WSU in 2021 as senior associate athletic director and chief financial officer for the athletics program. In spring 2022, he accepted a role on the university's Pullman campus as assistant vice president for business and financial services, where he provided financial leadership for the university in areas including debt, cash and investments while collaborating with key institutional units, including accounting, reporting, payroll, student accounts and contracting services.

That culminated to Haarlow earning full-time position. Asked to lay out his vision for WSU athletics in 2026 and beyond, he said, "Make no mistake about it, I believe that we can lead the Pac-12 from the front."

"We can be disrupters, ready to pivot, because we know there's another shoe that's going to drop in the NCAA," Haarlow said. "We wanted to make sure that we're agile and we can be flexible, ready to attack that. So this isn't just a one-phased approach."

Haarlow, who led the charge in hiring football coach Kirby Moore and soccer coach Chris Citowicki as the interim AD, is one of many Cougar front office members who want to ensure the new Pac-12 has access to the College Football Playoff. But questions remain whether that is a possibility .

Earlier this week, a report from On3 Sports indicated that the Poinsettia Bowl would be returning for the 2026 season, and it could pit the Mountain West champion against the Pac-12 champion — which would seem to take the Pac-12 champion out of contention for the Group of 6 spot in the CFP.

Haarlow may not have the singlehanded authority to ensure the Pac-12's access to the CFP, but he did say he would do what he can to do so.

"My full intention, the Pac-12's full intention, is to get our champion into the CFP," Haarlow said. "Make no mistake about it, that is priority number one. Full stop. So while we still want to make sure there's other opportunities for our other football members to have quality opponents and get to destinations and have some postseason success, the CFP is probably number one."

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