Then-Oregon State athletic director Bob De Carolis held a meeting in February of 2003 with students at Milam Auditorium in which he unveiled his “Raising Reser” project.

“Builder Bob” had already presented his $80-million stadium expansion plan to excited season-ticket holders and key donors.

Now, the AD needed to sell students on his master plan.

What they didn’t know was just how badly OSU needed it to work. The Beavers athletic department wasn’t just operating upside down financially, matters were about to compound in a way even De Carolis couldn’t have seen coming. The State Board of Higher Education that governed the state’s university system since 1929 in the state would eventually close in favor of independent boards at the universities.

Having a Board of Trustees at OSU would mean more direct oversight. Those annual athletic department debts that were once conveniently absorbed and forgiven by campus accounting would now be more closely scrutinized. And the running debt would stay with the department.

De Carolis' plan was a good one. He’d inherited $12 million of debt when he took the job. He ran the numbers on Reser Stadium, and knew that OSU could have filled its 35,000-seat stadium every college football weekend and still finished in the red. He needed more inventory. Having another 8,000 seats for his sales staff to sell, along with renovated suites and club-level packages, was an attractive path to possible financial stability.

It was the only path, really.

The fundraising campaign erased the debt he inherited and set up OSU to be profitable. Some 15 years later, however, Oregon State’s athletic department sits more than $40 million in debt. OSU will operate in the fiscal year 2018 another $6.5 million upside down.

Sagging football attendance due to a series of poor seasons is a key reason for that. But also, the failure of the Pac-12 Conference to maximize its distributions to members has been a detriment. The Pac-12 still hasn’t sold its digital rights in lucrative packagers like other major conferences. The Pac-12 Network has been a massive disappointment, too. In the last year, the conference distributed nearly $11 million a year less to each member than the Southeastern Conference.

Between now and 2024, each of the SEC members will receive $66 million more than OSU will get from the Pac-12. It’s revenue that could have solved the Beavers' biggest problem.

Current OSU athletic director Scott Barnes declined multiple interview requests in the last month. The financial documents of the university will speak for him. But what became evident early on is that Barnes couldn’t have known the full scope of the financial challenge he was inheriting when he left Pitt and took the job in 2017.

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Pac-12 leadership has been under fire for some time. Fans are frustrated. Coaches and athletic directors around the conference are upset. Several former athletic directors have spoken out in recent weeks and asked why conference commissioner Larry Scott hasn’t operated with more collaboration and transparency.

They’d like to know why Scott isn’t doing what his peer commissioners in the Big Ten and SEC are doing for their conferences. Also, why he’s paid $4.8 million annually, more than double those conference commissioners.

The Oregonian/OregonLive outlined the ways in which the Pac-12 falls short, and is being left behind in a four-part series last month. Scott spends lavishly, operates the conference headquarters with high expenses, fosters a divisive culture, and hasn’t shown genuine interest in working closely with athletic directors.

But what he’s done especially well is manage the Pac-12 CEO Group -- his bosses.

An email correspondence between Scott and his university presidents captured an interesting exchange that was first published last week by The San Jose Mercury News. Of note, was the manner in which Scott communicated with OSU president Dr. Edward Ray, perhaps Scott’s most enthusiastic supporter.

Scott thanked Ray for helping him manage some of the newer presidents in the wake of the conference’s Sept. 21 officiating scandal.

“Thanks for your note and sharing with the group," Scott wrote to Ray. "We’ve got some CEOs new to this environment with angry sports blogger mob, and I’m sure some are more sensitive and reactionary to it. So your not (sic) was very helpful indeed.”

It didn’t go over well with some of the newer university presidents. Although none have spoken publicly about it.

Worse yet, Ray’s undying support didn’t make sense. He should have been the least happy of anyone in CEO Group about the high overhead and failures of the conference.

While the conference is carrying more than $100 million in combined debt service for the various facility improvements made at places such as Oregon, Washington State, Arizona and others, Oregon State’s athletic department has a bigger problem.

OSU has millions in annual debt service associated with the various campus construction projects (Raising Reser, Gill Coliseum, Goss Stadium, Valley Football Center, Sports Performance Center, etc.), but the athletic department itself is also projected to operate at an annual deficit of more than $6 million annually.

Again, two things in play here for OSU: A) Debt service on its facility improvements; and B) Accumulating debt that is caused by the annual athletic department deficit that isn’t being forgiven on campus the way it was when the State Board of Higher Education was in charge.

The average Pac-12 university athletic department operates about $1 million in the black, profitable, but far behind its peers nationally.

Oregon State is losing six times that figure annually.

De Carolis knew he needed football to fill the seats. He was criticized years ago for setting the bar too low when he announced, “Our goal is to be bowl eligible every year.” It was a simple concept, but in hindsight De Carolis was exactly right. Being bowl eligible on a recurring basis virtually ensured that season-ticket sales would help him balance the athletic department budget.

Except, Oregon State hasn’t been bowl eligible since 2013. The Beavers have qualified for only two bowl games since the 2010 season and are now on their third head coach. And they have finished 3-24 in the last three seasons of conference play.

Barnes is on record -- he’s publicly touted a financial sustainability plan that calls for break-even in 2020. But he’s going to need to be a magician to pull that off. Perhaps that’s why he uses the phrase, “calls for,” and not “assures" when talking about breaking even.

Football season tickets sold dropped from nearly 25,000 in 2010 to only 15,393 this season in Jonathan Smith’s first year on the job. At multiple public appearances Barnes has mentioned he’d like to finish construction on the west side of Reser Stadium. But OSU’s athletic department is not eligible for helpful long-term bonds because it operates at that recurring deficit.

Oregon State’s braintrust should be banging its shoes on the table, asking what the Pac-12 can do to help it compete.

Instead, it’s gone mostly silent.

Maybe the Board of Trustees can do the rest of us a favor and ask a question: Why?