Where does Washington State University go from here?

PULLMAN - June 28, 2022, is a day that will forever be known as a nightmare in the eyes of the Pacific-12 (PAC-12) conference. On this day, USC and UCLA both announced they would be leaving the PAC-12 and head for the Big 10 as early as the start of the 2024 sports season.

This announcement sent shockwaves throughout the PAC-12 conference, two of the biggest Universities and branding teams in the conference are leaving to play against opponents in the east. PAC-12 schools will miss out on Los Angeles trips, and will see the credibility of the competition level drop drastically once the Trojans and Bruins leave.

It was not before long that other PAC-12 schools became aware of the ever-growing struggle of the conference, TV deals.

The PAC-12 conference has yet to land a television deal that can guarantee universities a deal that should be able to see them rake in multi-millions of dollars a season, which now changes thanks to USC and UCLA.

The next big change in the PAC-12 were their new second biggest schools, Oregon and Washington. The University of Oregon is one of the biggest branded universities in the country. Everyone knows Phil Knight, everyone knows the green and yellow colors of the Ducks, everyone knows they never wear a football jersey twice ever, they are the perfect fit to become the face of the PAC-12. The only problem is, the PAC-12 has no money, and commissioner George Kliavkoff had an offer set in place July 31 to keep the conference together, or so he thought.

Kliavkoff announced that the PAC-12 had a deal with Apple TV about to close, giving each school an annual base pay of $23 million, with incentives to raise the price each school received based on various factors. The deal sounded great, however, certain factors came into play right before deadline, and ultimately the deal was never made due to unanswered questions and concerns from other PAC-12 presidents and higher-ups. Ultimately, other schools were concerned about the money not being enough, and saw potential elsewhere, where they jumped on the opportunity.

Thursday, August 3, just before midnight, the PAC-12 had 10 schools, and the idea was that they would sign with Apple on the afternoon of August 4, what really ended up happening shocked the league, and ultimately is the beginning of the end of the PAC-12.

Friday morning, the university of Oregon and the University of Washington announced they are also headed for the Big 10 in 2024, and will join USC and UCLA. The four biggest and most profitable schools in the conference now are playing in the Big 10, which is not a good sign for a conference looking for money to keep the schools.

Just three hours after Oregon and Washington announced their departure of the PAC-12, three more schools fell victim to the money from any conference other than the PAC-12. Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah announced they were headed for the Big 12. This now leaves Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State as the "PAC-4".

Just hours away from a deal to keep the conference to 10, it dropped to four instantly, and by the next week or so could drop down to two.

Cal and Stanford are currently being linked to the ACC, a conference headlined by Clemson for football. Oregon State and Washington State are in a tough position, although they do bring in money and branding that can be useful to a conference, the ACC is looking at Cal and Stanford for the academic side they bring.

WSU and Oregon State may find themselves as the "PAC-2" before September hits. The logical option would be to join the Big 12, and headline a "Big-6 West" sub-division with Colorado, Utah, Arizona State, and Arizona, but the Big-12 has reported they are uninterested in adding any more schools.

The logical realignment for WSU and Oregon State is to join the Mountain West. The only problem is that WSU and Oregon State are accustomed to $20 million plus in media endorsements and branding from PAC-12 television deals, the Mountain West is lucky to scrape 40% of that revenue overall.

The four remaining schools in the "PAC-12" have to play the waiting game, but can not be greedy and hold out for other offers, if the right offer comes, they need to grasp it, before it's too late.