Oregon and State and Washington State are the only two teams left from the PAC 12 after conference realignment devastated the league the last few offseasons. What was once a conference of twelve teams is now a group of two.
It’s going to be a really weird situation overall this year with just two teams in a conference, though they do have a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West to help fill out their schedules.
Many speculated that in the future, Washington State and Oregon State would become full-fledged members of the Mountain West, given the geographic convenience and the fact that they’re probably on the outside looking in of any of the four major conferences. But, according to new reporting by CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd, it appears that they could indeed be left out of the Mountain West.
On the surface, it makes sense for the best Group of Five conference to take in the last two Power Five schools remaining from the realignment chaos.
But after a week of speaking to industry sources during various media days, there seems to be momentum toward the Mountain West cooling on inclusion of Oregon State and Washington State. Such a move has been portrayed as expansion, a merger or a reverse-merger. (Although, it’s hard to envision who reverse-merges with whom.)
The Mountain West has a scheduling agreement with both teams for the 2024 season with a mutual option to continue the partnership in 2025. Might as well make that a Mountain West option because it’s becoming clear the conference doesn’t necessarily need or even want the Beavers and Cougars on a full-time membership basis.