As the Pac-12 wraps up its final season as we know it with a mighty bang, two schools are still under heavy duress as they attempt to figure out their next steps. The Oregon State Beavers and the Washington State Cougars — ranked at No. 15 and No. 13 heading into Week 6, respectively — do not have a destination set up in 2024. So what will happen to them?
The Big 12, Big Ten, and ACC seem to have closed their doors to any further expansion for the time being, whether or not Oregon State and Washington State had any interest in joining an existing conference. The two schools’ clearest path forward at this point seems to be a sort of merger with the Mountain West Conference, whether that looks like a full dissolution of the Pac-12 and a conference switch, or like an invitation to MWC schools to rebuild on the ashes of the Pac-12. The schools will be the same in either case — the name and the Power 5 designation of this future conference remain up in the air.
So why did other conferences add Cal and Stanford before these top-25 programs? “Let’s be clear, WSU and OSU are in this situation not because of the quality of our athletic programs, but because of the size of our media markets,” Washington State president Kirk Schulz said.
This reality isn’t likely to change within the next few years, and since television money reigns in college football, we may be watching the end of Washington State and Oregon State as we know it. If they can’t build a conference that gets a major TV contract, a lot of other things will fall away for both programs as they struggle to keep up with better-funded teams in the NIL era.
Enjoy it while you can, folks. We may be watching the end of an era for the Cougs and the Beavs.