Washington State President Kirk Schulz ‘not interested’ in NCAA president job

Not long after Mark Emmert announced Tuesday that he’d be stepping down from his post as NCAA president, a report suggested that Kirk Schulz might be a candidate for the job.

Less than a day later, the Washington State president responded definitively.

“I remain fully committed to my position as system president at Washington State University,” Schulz tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “I am not interested in being considered as the next NCAA president. My support will continue to be with Mark Emmert as he finishes his time with the NCAA and I look forward to working with his eventual successor.”

The Athletic listed Schulz among 10 potential replacements for Emmert, who will relinquish his position by June 2023, or sooner if a new president is identified before then.

Schulz’s inclusion in the article shouldn’t come as a surprise. He is well-respected in the athletics administration sphere, and currently serves as the Pac-12’s representative on the College Football Playoff Board of Managers. He is one of three conference presidents on the Pac-12 CEO Group’s executive committee and also worked on the NCAA Executive Committee in the past. Schulz helped lead the search for a new Pac-12 commissioner last year.

He’d spent seven years as president at Big 12 member Kansas State before joining WSU in 2016. Last week, prognosticators named Schulz a potential candidate to fill the vacant Big 12 Commissioner job, but he reportedly wasn’t interested.