Canzano: Is there a sleeping giant in the Pac-12?
Texas State? Colorado State? Utah State? San Diego State? Someone else?
Texas State President Kelly Damphousse took the stage on Friday in a ballroom at the LBJ Student Center on his campus.
“It’s almost like a runaway train,” he told the room.
His campus sits in Hays County, the fastest-growing county in the country. His university has a record enrollment and gained nearly 3,000 new donors since joining the Pac-12. Damphousse was talking about harnessing the booming growth around him.
This week, I took a look back at the fiscal year 2024 athletic department budgets for the new-world Pac-12 members. The conference begins, officially, on July 1. What the members have previously been spending provided a loose starting benchmark.
Texas State ranked dead last.
A Bobcats fan replied to my post on Twitter with: “I didn’t know we were so far behind.”
Damphousse saw that and replied: “Emphasis on ‘were.’”