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May 2, 2008 4:27 PM

Cragg won't pursue AD job, Moos yet to be contacted

The known candidate pool for the vacant UW athletic director's job shrunk a bit today as Mike Cragg, a 1986 graduate of Washington who is an associate athletic director at Duke, said he will not pursue the position.

Cragg said he is instead focusing his energies on attempting to become the new AD at Duke, where he has worked since 1987. Duke AD Joe Alleva recently left to take the same position at LSU.

Cragg, a native of Yakima, applied for the UW job in 2004 and had said in December he would like to be considered this time.

But now, with his interest in the Duke opening, he said ''the timing is just not right'' to be a candidate at UW.

Also, Raymond Cihak, an attorney for former Oregon athletic director Bill Moos, said today that Moos has not been contacted by either UW or the search firm helping the Huskies in the process. Cihak said Moos said it would be inappropriate to comment further since he hasn't been contacted. Through Cihak, Moos said in December that the UW job "would be a great opportunity for whomever they hire.''

Moos has been speculated as a possible candidate but also has a non-compete clause in his contract with Oregon that could complicate coming to UW. Specifically, he will be paid $1.85 million over 10 years as long as he does not take a job as an AD ''or a comparable position at a Bowl Championship Series Conference school west of the Mississippi River.''

The fact that Moos hasn't been contacted yet may not mean it's certain that he isn't a candidate. But there are strong indications that Parker Executive Search, hired by UW to aid in the search, has begun contacting potential candidates, a process thought to have picked up steam this week after it became known that acting AD Scott Woodward would not be a candidate to take over permanently.

Woodward had been thought to be a leading candidate but said Thursday he wouldn't pursue the job with UW president Mark Emmert feeling he can best serve the school in his current position as the vice president of external affairs.

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