Dear President Jones and Members of the Board of Regents,
I'm disappointed in Jedd Fisch's performance as head coach, and I believe a change is necessary. He hasn't met his own expectations and is now running from them, blaming everyone but himself. That lack of accountability is unbefitting of a university that prides itself on forward thinking and problem solving.
I am even more concerned about the overall state of the athletic department. Athletic Director Pat Chun has said publicly that our approach to NIL matches that of our "peer institutions." That is objectively false, unless our peers are Rutgers rather than Michigan or USC.
According to reporting by The Athletic, we rank in the bottom third of the Big Ten in football roster spending. That is not where Washington belongs. Over the past decade, we have done what very few programs have: reach the College Football Playoff under more than one head coach. That list is short:
- Ohio State
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Notre Dame
- Washington
Have any of the others cut off third-party NIL funding entirely?
It is unacceptable that we now trail schools like UCLA and Vanderbilt, let alone the programs above.
We are at a crossroads, and we risk another long chapter of obscurity. If the plan is to wait for Congress to fix college athletics, that is a disappointing plan for a university that leads in so many other areas.
Firing Coach Fisch would address a symptom of the problem, not its cause. The next candidate we interview for head football coach will want a clear answer about how the roster will be funded.
How would you answer them?