Bill Moos works in sleepy Pullman, Wash., a speck on the map near the Idaho border, but outside, on Washington State’s campus, it can sound lately more like central Hong Kong. Drills buzz and hammers pound and shovels clank.

These are the sounds of progress, a clamor best explained by one word: television.

Moos is Washington State’s athletic director, and in recent years he installed the two largest construction cranes in campus history. They stood sentry as the Cougars renovated Martin Stadium and overhauled their football facilities, complete with a $130 million price tag. They welcomed Coach Mike Leach and his $2.25 million annual contract — an amount roughly four times what his predecessor earned.

The catalyst, Moos said, is the Pacific-12 Conference’s television deal, which was signed in 2011 and includes a 12-year, $3 billion agreement with ESPN and Fox. It is the first conference network owned entirely by its members, and the revenue from the deal is equally distributed among the universities, an initiative led by Moos.

For Washington State, that meant more than twice as much money in total conference revenue ($17.8 million) compared with two years ago ($8.2 million) and almost four times the television money ($14.7 million from $3.7 million). And those figures include little from the Pac-12 Networks, which consist of one national and six regional networks that turned a “small surplus” in their first year, Commissioner Larry Scott said.