Oregon State and Washington State finally have a schedule for 2024. What now?
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Kyle Bonagura, ESPN Staff Writer
The Mountain West Conference announced Friday it agreed to a scheduling agreement with Oregon State and Washington State that will see the two remaining Pac-12 schools add six games against MWC schools to their football schedules next season. It’s a move that provides OSU and WSU a stopgap until their long-term future can be determined, while laying the groundwork for the possibility of a more permanent relationship between the schools and conference in the future.
We break down how Oregon State and Washington State got to this point and what the future holds for both programs as well as the Pac-12 brand.
How did we get here?
First of all, it took years of bad leadership under two commissioners — Larry Scott and George Kliavkoff — and a group of presidents asleep at the wheel to bring about the collapse of the Pac-12. Still, the Pac-12 would have maintained its place in collegiate sports had UCLA and USC not bolted for the Big Ten. Their departure was the domino that ultimately resulted in the other eight schools scattering to the Big 12, Big Ten and, finally, the ACC, leaving Oregon State and Washington State without a conference when the music stopped.
Since early September, OSU and WSU have attempted to lay the groundwork to rebuild the Pac-12. For a conference to exist, the NCAA requires “at least seven active Division I members,” all of which must sponsor men’s and women’s basketball, and for the conference to sponsor at least 12 Division I sports, among other requirements. However, the bylaws allow a conference a two-year grace period in which it can exist without a minimum number of schools in the case of departures. Without that provision, it’s likely OSU and WSU would have joined the MWC as full members. With it, though, the schools can operate the Pac-12 as a two-team conference for two academic years with the hope of adding members down the line. The most obvious targets reside in the Mountain West.
Despite months having gone by, OSU and WSU still do not have a full accounting of what the financial picture in the Pac-12 will be when the dust settles. Some of that won’t be determined until the current legal battle for control of the conference plays out. There are other factors, too. There is pending litigation that will likely require the conference to pay tens of millions of dollars (most notably to Comcast), and however things net out — with the departing schools being paid what’s still due to them — will shape how OSU and WSU move on.
So, in the short term, Oregon State and Washington State needed to find a solution to fill a 12-game regular season next year, leading to the scheduling agreement.
What will OSU’s and WSU’s schedules look like?
The agreement with the Mountain West adds three home games and three away games against MWC teams for both Pac-12 schools. This has no impact on games that were already scheduled — including games involving MWC teams. WSU already had games against San Diego State and San José State lined up, in addition to games against Portland State and Washington. So, along with the game against Oregon State in Corvallis, the Cougars still have one more game they need to line up.
Oregon State will have the six MWC games, plus previously scheduled games against Purdue, Boise State and Idaho State. Unlike with the Apple Cup in Washington, there hasn’t been an official announcement on if the Beavers will play rival Oregon next year, leaving two open dates still to be filled.
One possibility that WSU athletic director Pat Chun did not dismiss is that OSU and WSU could play each other twice next season.
What does this do for the Mountain West?
The Mountain West had the leverage here and the result is an approximate payout of roughly $14 million from OSU and WSU to facilitate this agreement. That amounts to a little more than $1 million per game for each school to help fill their schedules, adding a relatively significant sum to the MWC coffers.
“We truly believe the competitive strength of schedule add that these two teams will bring to our league really helps enhance our positioning for the expanded College Football Playoff,” MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez said.
That’s the case, of course, only if the eventual MWC champion beats its Pac-12 opponent.
What will happen to the Pac-12 brand name?
It lives on. The Beavers and Cougars will continue to use the Pac-12 logo on their fields, uniforms and wherever else it has been in the past. However, there is a widely held expectation that, eventually, OSU and WSU will formally merge with the Mountain West schools.
Neither Chun nor Nevarez was willing to entertain that possibility Friday, citing a focus on the short term, but barring an unforeseen development that makes the most sense. It’s just a matter of how it’s structured.
Despite its diminished state, the Pac-12 brand still carries value, relative to the Mountain West, which is why there is potential for a so-called reverse merger. In this scenario, the Mountain West schools would move, as a group, in the opposite direction, allowing them to avoid paying a buyout. It’s highly likely this new “Pac-Something” would still be run by the MWC leadership team.
Where does the CFP go from here?
For now, OSU and WSU are in a tough spot. There is no expectation for the Pac-12 champion, if or however that’s determined, to be eligible for one of the expected five slots designated for conference champions. The possibility of either team being playoff worthy next season given everything that has happened seems remote, but if either is in the mix, it would likely need to earn one of the at-large spots — like Notre Dame — and would not be eligible to host a game.
Still, WSU coach Jake Dickert said he believes this agreement gives the Cougars a better chance to be relevant for playoff purposes than had they been forced to schedule a fully independent slate.
What’s the latest on all the court filings with OSU/WSU and the Pac-12?
After a superior court granted control of the conference to OSU and WSU last month, the Washington Supreme Court issued a stay of that ruling while the court reviews the case and decides whether to take it, dismiss it or pass it on to the court of appeals for review. What that means in the short term is that the Pac-12 must have unanimity in all matters, preventing both OSU and WSU from making major decisions about what to do with conference revenue and the departing schools from going nuclear and deciding to vote to disband the conference altogether and distribute the remaining assets. An accelerated briefing schedule to determine how the case will move forward will conclude by Dec. 12.
What about the other sports?
That’s still being ironed out and, perhaps, will be more difficult given how many more games are played in sports other than football. Nevarez was unwilling to address the possibility of similar scheduling agreements when asked about it Friday, but sources told ESPN that discussions have taken place. It’s also possible that OSU and WSU could find temporary homes across other conferences for the time being, but the priority was to get something done for football.
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Ryan S. Clark
Many of Mikko Rantanen’s greatest moments have come in a Colorado Avalanche sweater. It’s just that the most defining moment of his career came at their expense.
It wasn’t enough that the Dallas Stars were trailing by two goals. It was also the fact that Rantanen scored a hat trick in a string of four unanswered goals that saw his current team, the host Stars, eliminate his old team, the Avalanche, in a 4-2 win Saturday in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals at the American Airlines Center.
“Obviously, the feeling was incredible to win a series,” Rantanen said in his postgame media availability. “This series was not exactly what I expected. I expected a seven-game series, even before Game 1. The ups and downs in the series. … Belief was there with the group the whole time. Obviously, I was able to make a pay to get the first one and the crowd started to roll.”
The Stars, attempting to reach the conference finals a third straight time, will advance to the semifinal round in which they will await the winner of series featuring the St. Louis Blues and Winnipeg Jets. That encounter will be decided Sunday in Game 7 in Winnipeg.
Soon, the Stars’ collective focus will shift to another Central Division foe. But for now? The attention before, during, and after the game, was on Rantanen.
Part of what made the Avalanche-Stars series arguably the most intriguing first-round series in either conference was the fact it placed two 100-point teams that are in championship window against each other. But, it also came with several subplots with the notable being the team that traded quite a bit to land Rantanen — with the hope he could win them a Stanley Cup now — needed him to defeat the team that he won a championship with back in 2022.
With one assist through the first four games, there was a discussion about if the Stars could manage to win with a sputtering Rantanen on top of the fact they were already without two of their best players in defenseman Miro Heiskanen and forward Jason Robertson.
Rantanen responded with a three-point performance in Game 5, and a four-point performance in Game 6 only to then have a hand in each goal on Saturday. His first goal came on the power-play with 12:12 remaining in the third period when he found enough space to fire a wrist shot that beat MacKenzie Blackwood.
Then came the game-tying goal and the significance it carried. The Stars went on the power play went Avalanche forward Jack Drury was called for holding. Drury part of the trade package the Carolina Hurricanes used to get Rantanen in late January before they would trade him to the Stars.
Drury’s penalty opened the door for Rantanen to score a game-tying goal that might be one of, if not, his signature salvo. Rantanen skated into the Avalanche zone in a 1-on-3 before he split two players before going around the net for a wrap-around goal that went off the skate of Samuel Girard with 6:14 left.
Three minutes later, the Stars received another power-play opportunity that saw Rantanen along with another former Avalanche forward in Matt Duchene work together to find Wyatt Johnston for the game-winning goal.
In the final minute, the Avalanche pulled Blackwood in the attempt to grab a late goal and force over time. Instead? Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger withstood a barrage that officially ended when Stars forward Tyler Seguin got the puck out of the zone only for Rantanen to skate in on an open net for the hat trick with three seconds left.
“I couldn’t care less who scored for them, I really couldn’t,” Avalanche captain and left winger Gabriel Landeskog said when asked about what it was like to watch Rantanen score a hat trick. “Mikko is one of my best friends and I love him, but I couldn’t care if he scored or if somebody else scored.”
For eight full seasons, Rantanen was part of a homegrown movement that saw the Avalanche go from finishing with what was then the worst record in the salary cap era back in 2016-17 to become a perennial favorite to win the Stanley Cup, which did they did in 2023, while also becoming a model for the need to build through the draft.
Building through stars such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen allowed the Avalanche to become a success. As did the moves they made to get other key figures like Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews.
Like all teams in a championship window, the Avs were facing the prospect of possibly making a difficult decision. They had yet to agree to a new contract with Rantanen, who was a pending unrestricted free agent. Then, came the blockbuster trade that few throughout the league saw coming.
The Avalanche traded Rantanen in a three-team trade that saw them get Martin Necas and Drury along with two draft picks. Rantanen’s time with the Carolina Hurricanes was limited to just two goals and six points in 13 games.
Despite the fact the Hurricanes are also among that cadre of championship contenders, Rantanen struggled to find cohesion in Raleigh. Rather than run the risk of watching leave for nothing in free agency, the Hurricanes put out feelers to a few teams with the Stars being one of them.
A long-time admirer of Rantanen, the Stars packaged two first-round picks, three second-round picks and former prized prospect Logan Stankoven to get Rantanen. They then signed him to an eight-year contract worth $12 million annually.
“It’s two things: It’s where our team’s at, and it’s Mikko Rantanen,” Stars general manager Jim Nill told ESPN back in March.
Rantanen finished the regular season with five goals and 18 points in 20 games prior to the showdown with his former team.
Not only did Rantanen’s hat trick condemn his former team to their second first-round exit since winning the Stanley Cup, but it continued a theme of former Avalanche eliminating their previous employers.
The Avalanche and Stars faced each other in last season’s Western Conference semifinal that saw Duchene, a former Colorado first-round pick, score the game-winning goal.
A year later, it was another former Avalanche first-round pick who delivered the devastating blow.
“It seems pretty fitting,” Johnston said about Rantanen. “Obviously, we want to win for each other and I think that goes a little extra when it’s a guy like that who is such a big part of our team and was there for a long time and everyone knows the trade that went on. It’s so awesome. We’re so happy as a group for him.”
As if Rantanen scoring a hat trick in a four-goal comeback wasn’t enough, there’s also the fact that this is now the ninth consecutive Game 7 that Stars coach Peter DeBoer has won his career.
DeBoer’s nine wins in Game 7s broke a tie with Darryl Sutter for the most in NHL history. It was also DeBoer’s third game 7 wins with the Stars.
“I felt something was going to happen,” DeBoer said. “But I could not have predicted that.”
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