SPOKANE - Washington State athletic director Bill Moos will make a decision on football coach Paul Wulff's future by today.

Wulff is 9-40 in his four seasons at Washington State, including a 4-8 record this season that doubled the Cougars' win total from 2010 but failed to quiet critics. Moos said on his weekly radio show Monday that he has to decide if "staying the course" is the right decision to energize the Cougars' fan base.

"Within 24 hours we'll know which direction we are going," Moos said on his show on KXLY.

He said the team is undeniably better than it was four years ago but is not good enough to compete for the Pac-12 championship.

Moos said he does not want to drag the question of Wulff's future out much longer, but wants to make the right decision.

"I am not one of those guys out at practice every day," Moos said.

Instead, he relies on detailed end-of-season meetings with coaches to make decisions, he said.

"I want to get a feel for where Paul is taking our program," Moos said.

An upbeat Wulff appeared at a WSU booster meeting in Spokane on Monday and received a standing ovation.

"People that know football know I should keep my job," Wulff said after the meeting.

Wulff said the Cougars had the talent to win eight or nine games next season.

"I'm very excited about the future," Wulff said.

Wulff, who played at Washington State in the 1980s, was hired prior to the 2008 season from nearby Eastern Washington University.

At Washington State, he has posted the worst career winning percentage for a coach in the program's history. The Cougars are just 4-32 in conference play under Wulff.

But he inherited a program that was gutted by poor recruiting, off-field problems and academic sanctions that led to scholarship reductions. Only now is the program returning to a full slate of scholarship players.

His original contract was for five years, but only the first three years were guaranteed. Wulff is guaranteed a year's severance pay of $600,000 if he is let go before the end of the five years.