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Report: WSU, Oregon State to rebuild Pac-12 by adding Mountain West schools

Mascots Butch of Washington State and Benny Beaver of Oregon State take to the field together before the Sept. 23 football game at Gesa Field in Pullman. (Tyler Tjomsland/The Spokesman-Review)
By Greg Woods gregw@spokesman.com(509) 459-5587

PULLMAN – Washington State and Oregon State may soon have new members in a reimagined Pac-12.

That’s the word from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, who reported Wednesday night that the schools have decided to attempt to rebuild the Pac-12 by adding Mountain West Conference schools Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Colorado State.

Those schools, whose additions would make six of eight required teams to complete an FBS conference by NCAA requirements, are expected to soon apply or have already applied for conference membership, according to the report. The deal could be finalized by the end of the week, Dellenger reported.

If the new Pac-12 adds two or more schools to complete the new conference, competition would begin with the 2026-27 school year, according to the report.

WSU and OSU’s two-year grace period to rebuild the conference ends in summer 2026 – two years after the departing 10 schools’ memberships in their new conferences began.

This season, WSU and OSU struck a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West to supply games for their 2024 schedules, but the Pac-12 and MWC’s talks on a 2025 agreement fell apart last week due to financial differences, according to multiple reports.

But that scheduling agreement’s terms put the Pac-12 on the hook for the $10-12 million penalty for each school it acquires from the Mountain West, according to this report. Each MWC school is also contractually bound to a $17 million exit fee.

In negotiations with potential new members, Dellenger reported, Pac-12 officials and third parties have presented a plan with a new media rights agreement worth more than the MWC’s current or future television package, as well as the sponsorship potential of the Pac-12 brand.

Under the Mountain West’s TV deal with CBS Sports and Fox Sports, member schools receive around $5 million per year, much less than the roughly $30 million Pac-12 schools were receiving under their previous media rights agreement.