NCAA bylaws grant conferences a two-year grace period to get back to a minimum eight members in the event of departures. After that, OSU and WSU’s options boil down to two main possibilities: join a Power 4 conference or rebuild their league, most likely with all Mountain West schools thanks to details in OSU and WSU’s new football contract with the league.
“Priority one is to join an existing power conference. Option two is to build back a power conference with the Pac-12 banner,” Barnes said. “An option might be what we call a reverse merger that might include adding existing Mountain West and the like. But that all needs to be developed over the next several months while keeping an eye on the landscape.”
But the agreement with the Mountain West, obtained by The Athletic through a public records request, is a lot more than simply a few football games in exchange for $14 million.
The contract, executed on Dec. 1, says that from the moment of its effective date, the schools will “negotiate in good faith the consummation, as promptly as reasonably practicable, of a definitive transaction pursuant to which all MWC Member Institutions join Pac-12 as Pac-12 member institutions with no MWC Exit Fee payable by any MWC Member Institution to MWC. The invitations, if made, would be effective as of the 2025-2026 NCAA season or the 2026-2027 NCAA season.”
What really protects the Mountain West is that the obligations of the contract survive for two years past the end date of the agreement, which is currently Aug. 1, 2025 but could be extended to 2026. OSU and WSU face penalties if they were to join a conference other than the Mountain West or a Power 4 league during that time.
Oregon State and Washington State would also owe significant withdrawal fees, on a sliding scale, if they were to invite some but not all Mountain West schools to the Pac-12. Adding one school would cost $10 million. Adding six schools would cost $67.5 million; 11 schools would cost $137.5 million, not including their exit fees for leaving the Mountain West.
But if the Pac-2 invites all 12 Mountain West schools to reverse-merge into a Pac-14? That would cost nothing. The conference had leverage and used it, in an attempt to protect all of its teams from being left behind. One wild-card scenario: Nine of the 12 Mountain West schools can vote to dissolve the conference, allowing them to leave for the Pac-12 without any exit fees. To this point, that possibility has not had enough votes to be an option.
Both sides said talk of an actual merger has not begun and is still far off. They need to see where the landscape of college sports is heading, and that outlook changes every day.
Nevarez met with Oregon State and Washington State in the fall to pitch them on joining the league, which will soon be the only West Coast-based FBS conference. School officials were impressed with Nevarez, who previously led the WCC, but didn’t want to commit to the conference.
Some officials around college sports wish Oregon State and Washington State would give up the fight and simply merge with the Mountain West, smooth out their transition and use the Pac-12 money to prop up the rest of their athletic departments. “They just haven’t accepted that reality,” one high-ranking official from another conference said.
But OSU and WSU leaders have maintained they will continue to fund and carry themselves at a Power 5 level, and given the massive realignment moves that have taken place in the past three years, buying themselves time could open unforeseen possibilities.
So to summarize: In two years the MW will become the PAC-14; Gloria will be commissioner and everyone in college athletics knows this is the answer and wants it done now but the OSU and Wazzu Presidents and ADs want to spend the money coming to them like two women recently divorced on a shopping trip to NYC instead of using it to settle debt.
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