As the rest of the Pac-12 heads elsewhere, the conference’s two remaining schools are continuing to make plans.
According to Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, Oregon State and Washington State are nearing an agreement to join the West Coast Conference as affiliate schools in multiple sports, including men’s and women’s basketball, beginning next year. While an agreement has yet to be finalized, it is expected to occur this week.
The news comes amid the final months of the current version of the Pac-12. Next year, the league’s 10 other schools will join other Power 5 conferences, including the Big Ten (USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington), the ACC (Stanford, Cal-Berkeley) and the Big 12 (Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah), leaving OSU and WSU in limbo.
In football, the two remaining Pac-12 teams recently reached a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West, with the agreement including the intent for the two sides to potentially merge.
As opposed to its partnership with the Mountain West, however, OSU and WSU games in the WCC would count toward league standings and the two remaining Pac-12 schools would be eligible to participate in the league’s postseason tournament and vie for automatic bids to the NCAA Tournament. Currently, the plan is for Oregon State and Washington State to continue as a two-member conference for the next two seasons, using an NCAA grace period to rebuild the Pac-12 to at least eight members by the end of the 2025-26 academic year.
[Yahoo]
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.