Oregon State, Washington State Trying To ‘Steal Some Mountain West Schools’
Beavers and Cougars are desperate
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Then there were two.
After a bunch of voting and voting within the ACC, the conference finally had enough votes to throw a life line Stanford and Cal — plus bringing in SMU — leaving the Pac-12 down to Oregon State and Washington State.
This should effectively end the Pac-12 conference with just the Cougars and Beavers still around.
The Mountain West has pitched to Oregon State and Washington State to join the conference.
This just makes too much sense.
Well… that is unless you are representing someone from those two leftover schools.
Action Networks Brett McMurphy is reporting that those schools are going to try to “steal some Mountain West schools.”
Even down to only 2 schools, Oregon State & Washington State "still trying to rebuild the Pac-12, maintain this thing & steal some of the Mountain West schools," source told @ActionNetworkHQ
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 1, 2023
This seems laughable and one has to seriously wonder if this is the same person who said that the Pac-12 should counter ESPN’s $30 million with a $50 million valuation for the conference.
The main reason that these two schools want to keep the Pac name alive is due to the value of the name, a boatload of media rights money the schools would get by being the last two left, and probably not be seen as a lesser set of schools by joining another league.
The one gigantic problem is that the Mountain West has a buyout of $34 million if any team were to leave to join any conference for the 2024 season. Oregon State and Washington State have no schedule for next year so the move has to be done quickly.
There is no logical Mountain West school that would pay that type of an exit fee to a league that is all but dead and has no media rights deal.
The Apple TV deal peaked at around $25 million and there is no way that company would spend that much with schools that have a lesser brand to what was in the Pac-12.
There are so many uncertainties with what a Pac-?? would look like. The smooth transition would be for those two schools to come in to the Mountain West and find a stable league and a new TV deal in the near future.
Now… for some fun, let’s examine how those two schools could add Mountain West teams.
The one way this could be done is for Oregon State and Washington State to use the money that they would get from the media rights deal that the other 10 schools would be giving that up.
There was a report from John Canzano that said there would be $420 million available to Cal, Stanford, Oregon State, and Washington State from money left by the other eight schools out.
There is no reason for that money to not be there and that’d be $210 million to each Washington State and Oregon State. I am not 100% sure if those schools announce they are going to another conference before the end of the year and that money goes to no one.
Let’s assume they want to rebuild and steal some Mountain West teams to rebuild the Pac-12 would have to front that bill in an exit fee. If it is eight teams at $34 million each that would cost $272 million.
However, the representatives from Oregon State and Washington State are probably thinking if enough Mountain West teams leave it will just dissolve the conference and thus no exit fees exist.
The other option is what was discussed before with a merger where the Mountain West votes to dissolve and then merge with whatever is left from the Pac.
The reason behind this is to keep the Pac-12 NCAA Tournament credits as well which is a good chunk of money, but how long would it last?
At this point with just two teams left what value is there in that Pac name after those tournament credits are handed out. There is no way it will keep its autonomy five status and a higher share of revenue shared from the College Football Playoff.
So, what is the point once this windfall of cash gets handed out?
The TV deal will be about what the Mountain West has now and it could be around $10 million or so per school per year.
This type of thinking that Oregon State and Washington State have any clout to lure in some Mountain West teams is laughable.
The end result will be these teams all coming together to be under one league but the quote of “steal some of the Mountain West schools” just shows that arrogance.
The Mountain West is solidified and has a lot of leverage to help out Oregon State and Washington State.
