Firing Anne McCoy was the right call

No podcast this week, as life events have once again conspired against us — Craig is traveling, and I’ve been tending to some ongoing medical concerns in my family. But I did find some free time to weigh in on Anne McCoy losing her job, and I hope you find this to be a thoughtful perspective.

Yesterday’s firing of Anne McCoy as director of athletics at WSU sent shockwaves through our fanbase, but the only actual surprise should have been the timing.

Certainly, none of us expected an AD hired in June 2024 with a five-year contract to be let go after just a year and a half, especially when that AD had been in the department for more than 20 years and is a Coug through and through. 

Adding to the dissonance was the rather unceremonious nature of the dumping, with news leaking via (of all people) the University of Washington beat writer at The Seattle Times, which was soon confirmed by ESPN, and then finally made official by the school about an hour later with a brief boilerplate statement sent out via email to media outlets and posted on WSU’s news release site:¹

It should be noted that Cantwell assumed the presidency at WSU on April 1 – 10 months after McCoy got promoted. 

Which means that this is the point at which you should cease being surprised.

When someone gets fired, the first question that comes to mind is “what happened?” And given everything we know about McCoy and everything we’ve observed in her relatively short tenure, I’m honestly not sure anything happened at all. Paradoxically, that’s probably why she’s out of a job.

McCoy was undoubtedly the “safe” choice when she was elevated from deputy AD after a short stint as interim AD following Pat Chun’s stunning departure for Washington. It’s easy to forget the timing of everything, but when she was handed the keys to the entire enterprise, WSU was actually still in the old Pac-12 – at least, for a couple of more months. Everyone knew what was coming, but also, nobody knew what was coming. In that regard, turning to a steady hand with the kind of deep institutional knowledge that only comes from working at every level of the department for two-plus decades made a ton of sense, and very few took any kind of serious exception to her promotion. 

But the best leader for yesterday is not always the best leader for tomorrow. The task facing WSU in November 2025 is not the task that was facing WSU in June 2024. And if Cantwell believes – as she obviously does – that McCoy’s particular set of skills is not suited to the task facing WSU today, then she was right to pull the trigger on a change.

It certainly sucks for McCoy, and maybe someone who loves our school as much as we do deserved better than to be dumped in this fashion.

But McCoy has been in the business for a long, long time, and she certainly understands that this is how the game is played. I’d submit that if she didn’t understand it, she wouldn’t have lasted so long at one department under multiple directors of athletics in the first place. That’s something she could have continued doing; she could have simply declined to make herself a candidate for the permanent job and probably slid right back into a deputy role, which she would have held until today, when she probably would have been made interim AD again, then slid back into a deputy role once again, doing what she has always done, until it’s time to retire. 

Instead, she decided to give it a go. I think that’s great! And also … well, them’s the breaks. You’re only the right person until the person above you changes and decides you’re not, and for her troubles, McCoy will be given more than $800,000 (assuming her contract includes a full buyout) to not work anymore, carrying the knowledge that she did everything she could to position WSU well for this next era. Most notably, she hired coaches for each of the most outward facing programs in the department, both of whom appear to at least be fine. She also made tough budgetary decisions while piecing together a not horrible football schedule under the worst circumstances possible following the acrimonious scheduling split with the MWC. She was a very good administrator.

But as you look at where we’re heading, it’s important to ask: Does WSU need a career administrator?

I’d argue that while a lot of the things McCoy did were prudent, they were hardly visionary – and none of them (that I’m aware of) boldly moved the department forward. I suppose some might argue that her hands were tied behind her back by the circumstances, but her conservative nature was exemplified by her approach to hiring the basketball and football coaches: Only those with head coaching experience were considered, and while that might be a sensible approach when hiring for positions that are so critical to the success of your department, it also eliminates a massive pool of candidates and reveals a distinct lack of imagination. The incremental changes she was proposing to the gameday experiences were in much the same vein.

Unfortunately for McCoy, now is anything but a time for a lack of imagination. Imagination – about what could be, about the possibilities at WSU – might be the most important quality for an AD in Pullman at the moment. You and I have watched this department long enough to know that is only going to come from someone who’s not already in Pullman, and Cantwell has now been on the job long enough to realize it, too.

The Spokesman-Review’s Greg Woods wrote, “Cantwell and other WSU leaders are looking for an aggressive fundraising athletic director as the new conference prepares to launch,” and it makes sense to look in that direction: Competing in the NIL market is an increasing concern, revenue has taken a major hit as we transition to the new media landscape, and there are no major coaching hires on the immediate horizon.

I can assure you that the words “aggressive” and “fundraising” have never been used together to describe McCoy … or really anyone at WSU, if we’re being honest, which is something that pretty clearly irks Cantwell. Many of us have long lamented WSU’s tepid approach to fundraising, and Cantwell appears determined to shove the school forward on that front.

She made the bold move that needed to be made. Now she’s got to nail the replacement. 

1  Oddly, there’s still no story on the athletics site.