Washington State administrators 'disappointed' in Oregon, Washington move to Big Ten

Washington State, one of the remaining schools in the Pac-12 Conference’s ever-dwindling future membership, released a statement from the president and athletic director calling out their peers for bailing. It makes clear that president Kirk Schulz and athletic director Pat Chun have prepared for the current situation.

On Friday, the Pac-12 presidents held a meeting in the morning to potentially sign on to a Grant of Rights and keep the remainder of the league — minus USC, UCLA and Colorado — together after the 2023-24 academic year. But that quickly fell apart, leaving Schulz and Chun to issue a strong statement.

“We are disappointed with the recent decisions by some of our Pac-12 peers. While we had hoped that our membership would remain together, this outcome was always a possibility, and we have been working diligently to determine what is next for Washington State Athletics. We’ve prepared for numerous scenarios, including our current situation. With exceptional student-athletes, a strong Cougar tradition and incredible support from our fans, donors and alumni, we will chart the best path forward together,” the statement said.

As things currently stand, the Pac-12 will be down to seven teams, with Oregon and Washington also leaving. However, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah all seem to be eyeing a move to the Big 12 with the Wildcats leading the way.

That would leave Washington State in a four-team Pac-12 with Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and themselves.

Building out a new Pac-12 membership isn’t an easy task

As the Pac-12 Conference dissolves in real time on Friday, ESPN college football reporter Pete Thamel joined SportsCenter to discuss what might come next for the league. And charting a course forward in the current situation might be borderline impossible for the Pac-12.

The obvious solution to the sloughing off of teams would be to simply add more. But the most obvious pool of teams — the Mountain West conference — presents a major roadblock: It’s pricey.

“Well there’s a significant challenge to just go poach the Mountain West because if any Mountain West school is to leave before 2025, so two full seasons from now, they’d have to pay a $32 million exit fee,” Thamel said. “The Pac-12, because it doesn’t have a television deal in 2024 — it expires after this season — wouldn’t have the capital to be able to help pay those exit fees and obviously the scope and caliber of any kind of deal of the leftover schools wouldn’t be near the finances to afford that.”