Pac-12, Mountain West likely to let deadline pass without extending agreement for 2025
Washington State and Oregon State began an unprecedented season Saturday as a two-team conference with a new TV partner and home games against FCS opponents. Off the field, the most significant development was the lack of news.
The Pac-12 schools and the Mountain West are expected to let their Sunday deadline pass without agreeing to extend the football scheduling partnership into the 2025 season, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions.
Neither side felt urgency to formalize plans.
“If there’s no agreement, that doesn’t mean we can’t still do something,” a source said. “This is not a standoff situation.”
Another source called a resolution this weekend “unlikely.”
Announced in December, the scheduling partnership provided both WSU and OSU with six games against Mountain West schools (three home, three away) for the 2024 season — the first of two years in which the Cougars and Beavers plan to compete as a two-team conference following the demise of the Pac-12.
The contract includes the term “Outside Date,” which refers to the expiration of the deal. Article IV, entitled “Term; Termination,” includes the following passage:
“For purposes of this Agreement, the ‘Outside Date’ shall be August 1, 2025. Notwithstanding the foregoing, if MWC and Pac-12 mutually agree in a signed writing on or prior to September 1, 2024, the ‘Outside Date’ may be extended to August 1, 2026.”
Multiple sources stressed that the absence of an extension agreement by the deadline would not prevent the Pac-12 and Mountain West from applying the framework to a revised deal specifically for the 2025 season.
Details could change in a reworked agreement, including the fee structure.
For the 2024 season, the Pac-12 schools will pay the Mountain West approximately $15 million, which includes an administrative fee, participation fee and scheduling fee (for each game in Pullman and Corvallis).
The deal also features a so-called poaching penalty, by which the Pac-12 would owe the Mountain West an eight-figure paycheck for each school that departs the conference to join Washington State and Oregon State in rebuilding the Pac-12.
The poaching penalty begins at $10 million for the first school to depart and increases by $500,000 for each subsequent school.
In aggregate, the Pac-12 would owe the Mountain West $43 million for four schools, $67.5 million for six schools and $94 million for eight.
As part of their settlement with the 10 departed schools, Washington State and Oregon State are withholding a total of $65 million in campus distributions — cash that could be used to pay all, or a portion of the poaching penalty.
Additionally, the Cougars and Beavers have more than $150 million in assets at their disposal (over the course of several years) from the Pac-12’s postseason football and basketball contracts.
“The priority with that money … is to make sure we are continuing to support and fund those (athletic departments) at the level they are accustomed to,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said recently on ‘Canzano and Wilner: The Podcast.”
“There will be some of those funds set aside that, as different scenarios emerge, we do have some resources available to us for our strategic priorities moving forward and whatever we might need to do to support our conference affiliation strategy.”
An extension of the scheduling agreement — or a revised deal hammered out in coming weeks — would allow the Cougars and Beavers to complete their 12-game schedules for the 2025 season.
But the schools are exploring all options as they attempt to remain as relevant as possible during the two-year grace period in which the NCAA officially recognizes the depleted Pac-12.
Those options could include possible matchups against Big 12 or ACC teams or, perhaps, schools in the Group of Five leagues outside of the Mountain West.
At this point, WSU has six opponents lined up for 2025: North Texas, San Diego State, Idaho, Washington, Virginia and Oregon State.
Meanwhile, the Beavers have at least six opponents on the schedule: Cal, Fresno State, Houston, Texas Tech and Oregon, plus Washington State.
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