Oregon State & Washington State are inching closer to agreeing to a two-year football scheduling alliance with the Mountain West
November 16th, 2023 at 5:22 PM ^
That is incredibly bad news for the Mountain West
November 16th, 2023 at 5:27 PM ^
Why do you say that? Seems like this sets them up for a merger along with their next TV deal.
November 16th, 2023 at 8:39 PM ^
oops sorry, I meant to clarify. This is good news for the conference. Bad news for the teams who have to play what is effectively 2 power 5 teams for a couple of years.
November 16th, 2023 at 9:49 PM ^
I mean… they kinda do that every year anyway? Michigan has played Hawaii, UNLV, and Colorado State from the MW in just the last two seasons. They regularly schedule games with teams from the PAC12 and Big12 as well.
November 17th, 2023 at 8:12 AM ^
This year alone Mountain West schools have played: Arizona State, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Oregon, Oregon State, Purdue, Stanford, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, UCF (not P5 yet, but they will be next year), UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt, Washington, and Washington State.
OSU and WSU should probably finish 1-2 in this scheduling agreement, but this won't be anything new for the league.
November 17th, 2023 at 10:05 PM ^
To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised to see Oregon State and Wazzu take a fairly significant step down moving forward either. Smith (Oregon State) is a candidate for some other P5 (4?) jobs and Dickert was at one point as well.
With the collapse of the conference, the uncertainty moving forward and the potential losses of their coaches I would t be surprised to see some portal entries from those programs. We’re looking at the #59 and #60 ranked recruiting classes, two spots ahead of UNLV. They’re #55 and #76 on the team talent composite. The loss of some of their top contributors puts them squarely in MW territory.
Also, UCF is already P5. They joined the Big 12 this season.
November 16th, 2023 at 6:15 PM ^
Snuggling up to two schools who now control $500M in revenue? Think its pretty logical….
November 16th, 2023 at 6:31 PM ^
These two programs are an excellent fit for the Mountain West.
November 16th, 2023 at 5:30 PM ^
This kinda sounds like that Big 10/ACC/Pac alliance. Or Jim's alliance with Dwight.
November 16th, 2023 at 5:53 PM ^
Absolutely it does.
November 16th, 2023 at 5:33 PM ^
Oregon State beating Washington on their way out of that conference would be poetic.
November 16th, 2023 at 5:37 PM ^
Beating Washington *and* Oregon -- knocking both out of the playoff -- would make Beaver fans die of happiness
November 16th, 2023 at 5:49 PM ^
I would live of happiness if that happens. I hope they win out and we win out and it can be UM-OSU (The best OSU) in the CFP semifinals.
November 16th, 2023 at 6:05 PM ^
This makes sense. The Pac-2 will remain an entity until all the legal issues are resolved and money distributed, and the teams have a path forward. I hope they schedule a conference championship game.
November 16th, 2023 at 8:36 PM ^
The most logical choice. I'd always wondered when the PAC12 would poach a team or 2 from there, like Boise, or Utah State.
November 17th, 2023 at 10:58 PM ^
There was never enough financial gain in it as the PAC12. A lot of schools with small enrollment, small endowment, subpar academics, and not much for media markets that aren’t already controlled. Boise would bring a spunky football team but would otherwise be an anchor. Utah State brought nothing with Utah already in tow. Ditto Colorado State. Maybe you argue SDSU and UNLV, but hard to get UNLV without Nevada (flagship school) and you certainly don’t need both.
When USC and UCLA announced their departure, I could have seen a window where they added 4-6 of them to create some stability, similar to what the Big 12 did. Obviously that didn’t happen and everyone went their separate ways.