The Sept. 1 deadline for the Pac-12 and Mountain West to agree on a scheduling agreement for the 2025 college football season has passed, and there is no deal in place.
This indicates that WSU and their lone remaining Pac-12 rival Oregon State will look in a different direction in 2025. The question is, where?
The Cougars currently have agreements to host Idaho, Washington and San Diego State, while they will be visiting Virginia and North Texas. Assuming they will also play OSU, it leaves the Cougars with six remaining games to be filled. Theoretically, the Cougars and Beavers could schedule those remaining games against various schools throughout the NCAA, and play a truly ‘independent’ schedule.
The problem with that approach is that most schools, including the Power-5 conferences, have already announced opponents for 2025. While it may be possible to find six schools willing to play the Cougars, WSU will not have their pick of the litter when it comes the schedule. They would have to settle for whatever they can get.
Notre Dame has gotten by as an independent school, but they’ve been able to build a strong program that consistently attracts three to four matchups against ranked schools from various conferences each year. They have credibility as a top program in the country, something the Cougars, unfortunately, do not have. Perhaps more importantly, the Cougars do not have the budget to invite big program schools to WSU. If the Cougars wanted to play against ranked schools, they would have to go into enemy territory to do it.
There have been rumors about potentially agreeing to a schedule with the Big-12, but those rumors appear to be far from reality. The Big-12 has already announced opponents for 2025, 2026 and 2027. What incentive would they have to remake their schedule by adding WSU and potentially OSU into the fold? It would likely involve WSU giving up a huge sum of money for another temporary agreement.
So where should the Cougars turn for 2025? Maybe they should turn back to the Mountain West. Despite the missed deadline, the Pac-12/Mountain West agreement doesn’t run out until Aug. 1, 2025. Deadlines can be extended, and it feels like a deal could still be possible. The Cougars paid over $2 million to the Mountain West for each of their three home games against San Jose State, Hawaii and Wyoming. While that is a steep price, it is hard to imagine the Cougars putting together a more competitive schedule for 2025 than what the Mountain West can offer.
Yes, there are independent schools with openings, but most of their schedule openings are in August and September. WSU already has its early season games in place. The Pac-12 needs to find schools able to play them in October and November, when conference play is taking place. The best bet is the Mountain West.
As programs such as Boise State and Fresno State have begun to receive more national attention in recent years, the Mountain West has a solid argument that it should be considered the fifth-best conference in the NCAA, now that the Pac-12 is out of the mix.
To be clear, WSU should not settle long-term for the Mountain West. They, along with OSU, should be having conversations every day about trying to either join a power-4 conference or rebuilding the Pac-12. But those developments don’t happen overnight. Rebuilding the Pac-12 takes time and money and would not be possible until 2026 at the earliest. Becoming full-fledged members of a Power-4 conference would also be difficult, considering WSU wasn’t invited to join in 2023 when the conference realignments took place.
WSU may truly be homeless when it comes to football. The Mountain West can still be their shelter in 2025, and the Cougars would be wise to take refuge with them as they continue looking to the future for a long-term home.
