Pac-2: Oregon State, Washington State deserved better from conference peers

Maybe this was bound to happen. Just a matter of time, as some say.

The ACC voted Friday morning to add Cal, Stanford and SMU. The Atlantic Coast Conference has now added two Pacific Coast teams. Regionalization in college sports is dead. TV giants ESPN and FOX have reached full power.

And what’s to make of Washington State and Oregon State? 

George Kliavkoff’s bargaining power was gone the minute he tried to get $50 million out of ESPN for the Pac-12’s new TV deal. Fox ultimately walked away with the West Coast schools it always wanted – Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA.

But two member schools now remain. The Beavers and Cougars did everything they could to please their Pac-12 peers. 

Washington State joined the league in 1917, and Oregon State, their land-grant counterpart, arrived in 1964. 

Now the odd group out, they did everything right. 

Oregon State launched a $153 million renovation of Reser Stadium this offseason. Mike Leach jumpstarted the Washington State program and Jake Dickert appears headed on the right track.

Two of the longest-tenured members of the Pac-12 are all that remain. They combined to win six conference crowns, with just two in the 21st century. The worst part of this blow is how both could be really good on the field this season. 

Jonathan Smith built the Beavers into a legitimate contender in the final season of the Pac-12’s existence, coming off a 10-3 season. Former five-star prospect DJ Uiagalelei will start at quarterback this year, but freshman Aidan Chiles has impressed throughout the spring and summer. 

The Cougars have their own flashy quarterback in Cameron Ward, who was one of the most sought-after names in the portal a year ago.

How poetic if one of them wins the Pac-12 crown?

“Conference realignment just doesn’t make sense anymore,” Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes told The Oregonian last month. “What this enterprise was built on was regionality and rivalries. That is gone. That is leaving the Pac-12. Some of the most special pieces about our model are the regionality of competition and rivalries. Those things are forgotten.”

What comes next for Oregon State, Washington State?

Forget the soliloquies about prioritizing athletes in college sports, too. Soon enough, Stanford and Cal will be making cross-country treks for softball and field hockey games. The results may not be seen for a few years. Some of the nation’s top Olympic athletes may prefer to attend SEC schools – it’s the last conference with a legitimate regional footprint. 

None of that is to undercut what the move means for athletes at Oregon State and Washington State. For many, their college experience will be disrupted. 

How the athletic departments even move forward is still unanswered. Each had been waiting out, on the thin chance, that Stanford and Cal would help rally what’s left of the Pac-12. 

Those chances were moved from life support to the morgue on Friday. Clearly, Kliavkoff has given up, too. At College Football Playoff meetings earlier this week in Dallas, he dodged reporters while saying his goal was to see a Pac-12 school win a national title this year. 

No efforts to save the Beavers or Cougars. 

Both the Mountain West and American Athletic conferences are courting the schools. AAC Commissioner Mike Aresco is “scheduled to visit both campuses” as well as meet with their leadership groups via remote video calls, an AAC source with direct knowledge of the league’s strategy told On3’s Eric Prisbell on Monday.

MWC Commissioner Gloria Nevarez is also meeting with Oregon State and Washington State leaders as the league assesses its options.

The MWC delivers its schools roughly $6 million in annual revenue and has a media rights deal with CBS Sports and FOX Sports set to expire after the 2025-26 academic year. AAC schools make slightly more than $8 million in annual rights revenue and have a rights deal with ESPN expiring after the 2031-32 academic year.

Whichever way the schools choose, it appears they’ll make the move together. A serious question that needs to be examined is if the schools will still support varsity sports. Both the AAC and MWC offer a significantly lower TV payout than the about $21 million they’ve been making in the Pac-12.

Clearly, Oregon State and Washington State deserved better than to be left at the altar by their Pac-12 peers. Maybe they never had the TV allure of Los Angeles, but they were what made college sports unique. A team from Pullman or Corvallis had a shot at the start of every year to compete for a spot in the national spotlight.

Whatever comes next will be a step back. An easier path to the College Football Playoff, sure. But the chance to knock off an archrival on primetime, those days are over.

Friday provided the deathblow to the Pac-12. All that remains are Oregon State and Washington State. Two institutions that tried to support the 108-year-old conference until the end.