In the wake of Bill Moos' departure to Nebraska comes this report from ESPN.com's Kyle Bonagura, in which the athletics director’s relationship with WSU president Kirk Schulz was described as less than rosy:

Bill Moos' decision to leave as the athletic director at Washington State for Nebraska is a direct result of growing friction between him/the WSU athletic department and university president Kirk Schulz, who arrived from Kansas State in June 2016. Moos twice asked for a contract extension and was rebuffed both times, according to multiple sources. Said one: “Kirk Schulz has been awful for athletics. Since he arrived, it has been tense and awkward and difficult.”

UPDATE: The Seattle Time's Stefanie Loh has sources disputing Bonagura's report:

My sources say this is incorrect. Moos had not asked for an extension, nor had Schulz offered one. https://t.co/U37USwg2lS — Stefanie Loh (@StefanieLoh) October 16, 2017

It's no secret that the Washington State Cougars’ athletic department is in deep debt, making things difficult when it comes to spending money. Athletics spent large chunks of money and took on substantial debt to get Mike Leach, renovate Martin Stadium and build the Football Operations Building.

All of that, one could argue, was something WSU couldn't afford not to do.

Of course, the Pac-12 Networks didn't bring the money to the schools it was projected to bring, and that caused problems on top of the debt WSU — and other schools —found themselves in.

When Schulz was hired to lead WSU in 2016, he made it a priority to get the university's finances in check, including athletics.

Notably, the university did not have a formalized budgeting process, and it was dipping too far into reserves to fund special projects. The way the university was spending money — including athletics — wasn't sustainable. (Just ask Cal.)

The athletic department was working on decreasing its debt. It was $13 million in the hole at the end of FY 2015, created a plan to become solvent by 2020, and expects to be more than $10 million in the hole at the end of FY 2017.

And yes, beer sales in Martin Stadium were projected to help, but alas, that has not come to fruition.

Schulz didn't hire Moos. In high offices, sometimes situations like this cause problems, and sometimes they don't. It appears there were problems at WSU.