Sunday’s deadline for the Pac-12 and Mountain West to extend their football programming partnership came and went without a deal.
Nor should you expect them to resume discussions at a later date.
According to a source close to the discussions, no agreement is in sight for the 2025 season. The two sides are simply too far apart.
Instead, Washington State and Oregon State are exploring other options to complete their 2025 schedules.
However, the source cautioned that the lack of a deal with the Mountain West does not indicate that a partnership with the ACC or Big 12 — or any other league, for that matter — is imminent.
The failure of negotiations also does not rule out the possibility of a longer-term merger, in some form, between the Pac-12 and the Mountain West.
“Don’t rule out anything for 2026 and beyond,” the source added.
Washington State and Oregon State will operate as a two-team conference for the 2024-25 seasons, based on the two-year grace period the NCAA grants to conferences reduced by realignment. By the summer of 2026, the Cougars and Beavers must join another conference or rebuild the Pac-12 with at least eight schools.
The scheduling partnership with the Mountain West gives both WSU and OSU six games (three home, three away) for the 2024 season.
In exchange for the competition, Pac-12 schools will pay the Mountain West about $15 million, which includes administrative fees, participation fees and programming fees (for each game in Pullman and Corvallis).
The contract does not include a fee schedule for the 2025 season. Payments were reportedly being negotiated again, the source said.
But financials weren’t the only obstacle. Extending the deal through 2025 didn’t fit neatly into the Pac-12’s long-term strategic plan, which relies heavily on remaining as flexible as possible — in case of further realignment — and preserving cash to seize opportunities.
As part of their settlement with the 10 schools, Washington and Oregon are withholding a total of $65 million in payments to the campuses. That money could be used to pay all or part of the poaching fine.
Additionally, the Cougars and Beavers have more than $150 million in assets (over multiple years) from Pac-12 postseason football and basketball contracts.
“Some of those funds will be set aside so that as different scenarios emerge, we will have some resources available for our strategic priorities going forward and whatever else we may need to support our conference affiliation strategy,” Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said recently on “Canzano and Wilner: The Podcast.”
For next season, the Cougars and Beavers are exploring a multitude of options and need a total of 12 games (combined) to fill their schedules.
At this point, WSU has six opponents lined up for next season: North Texas, San Diego State, Idaho, Washington, Virginia and Oregon State.
The Beavers also have six players under contract: Cal, Fresno State, Houston, Texas Tech and Oregon, plus Washington State.
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