Deadline passes for WSU, Oregon State to renew with Mountain West

Sep 3, 2024, 7:54 AM

WSU head coach Jake Dickert during a game against Oregon State on Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Mark Ylen)

(AP Photo/Mark Ylen)

BY RALPH D. RUSSO

The Associated Press

The Sept. 1 deadline for the Mountain West and WSU and Oregon State to renew their football scheduling arrangement passed without an agreement, and the conference said Monday it is anticipating making schedules for next season without the Pac-12 schools.

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The announcement does not necessarily close the door on the two sides agreeing to another arrangement as the 12-team Mountain West typically does not release its conference football schedule until December at the earliest.

“For the 2025 season, the Mountain West and its member institutions are moving forward with their conference and nonconference schedules,” the league said in a statement.

Oregon State and Washington State are operating as a two-team league this season and intend to do so in 2025 as well after 10 Pac-12 schools scattered to other power conferences this year.

To fill out football schedules, Washington State and Oregon State agreed to a deal with the Mountain West to play six games against those schools that do not count toward the conference standings. The deal paid the Mountain West about $14 million for this year.

The Mountain West and the Pac-12 schools said at the time they would look to possibly extend the agreement another year by Sept. 1, but the sides could not come to terms.

Oregon State currently has seven football games booked for next season, including against Washington State.

WSU has six games booked, including its conference game against the Beavers. Major college football teams typically play 12-game regular seasons.

Mountain West schools could also arrange games separately with Oregon State and Washington State.

Oregon State and Washington State struck a separate scheduling agreement with the West Coast Conference for basketball and other Olympic sports. That does not include Oregon State’s traditionally strong baseball program, which is operating as as an independent this school year.

Oregon State and Washington State are taking advantage of an NCAA rule that allows them to operate as a two-team conference for two years. Schools leaders have said their first priority is the rebuild the Pac-12 and they have accumulated tens of millions of dollars in conference related funds they hope can aid those efforts.

Their agreement with the Mountain West included millions of dollars in extra fees over the next two years if Oregon State and Washington State tries to add MW schools to the Pac-12.