Pac-12, Mountain West Conference miss deadline for 2025 football schedules: What's next?

The Pac-12 and Mountain West’s self-imposed deadline for a 2025 football schedule agreement has passed with no extension, leaving the future schedules for Oregon State and Washington State up in the air.

The decision by OSU and WSU to remain a two-member Pac-12 conference after the departure of 10 schools gave them a two-year NCAA grace period to get back to at least eight members or find a new conference. To make up for short-term holes, OSU and WSU last year entered into a one-year football scheduling agreement with the Mountain West for 2024, with most other sports signing a two-year agreement with the West Coast Conference.

In the deal, the Mountain West took away one conference football game from each of its members and replaced it with a game against OSU or WSU. The move made the Pac-2’s schedules whole, in exchange for $14 million.

“The football scheduling arrangement with Oregon State and Washington State was a one-year agreement,” the Mountain West said in a statement Monday. “For the 2025 season, the Mountain West and its member institutions are moving forward with their conference and nonconference schedules. Our focus remains on the current season and our exceptional teams.”

An option to extend the football schedule to 2025 had a deadline of Sept. 1, 2024, but as The Athletic detailed in July, the sides already were growing apart. That deadline has passed without a 2025 agreement, and chances of getting back together appear slim. Why?

One reason is money. Oregon State and Washington State would rather not pay so much for six combined home games. The $14 million this year comes out to $2.3 million per home game, which is above the going rate for a nonconference home game. But it’s $1.16 million for each total game, home or away, if you prefer to count that way, at a time when OSU and WSU need games and there are limited options.

The Mountain West’s perspective is that it can take or leave a deal. Without one, it can go back to eight conference games — something its coaches would prefer because of the unbalanced 4/3 home or away league schedule for 2024. It feels it has the leverage. No deal, however, would take away from the G5-leading “Power 5” matchups talking point in 2025, a case the league has made this season for its strength of schedule.

The Mountain West’s 12 teams formed a scheduling agreement with Washington State and Oregon State for 2024 but missed their deadline for the 2025 season. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

The Pac-12’s perspective is that it can still find other options to create good home games, more exposure and improve its strength of schedule.

The money difference between the sides was far apart, according to people briefed on the negotiations,

So how can OSU and WSU fill the gaps? OSU has six announced games on the schedule and WSU has five. Throw in a game against each other, and that gets them to seven and six, respectively. They theoretically could play a second game against each other, as schools like Liberty and New Mexico State did recently as independents.

One possibility could be to pick off some Mountain West schools individually rather than the whole. MW schools are incentivized to stick together based on the $1.16 million rate they’re getting in 2024. They may not have room on the schedule. Only Nevada, Wyoming and Hawaii publicly have a nonconference opening, but that number could be fewer based on pending deals not yet public.

What about the ACC and former Pac-12? Stanford has just two nonconference games listed publicly and a TBD ACC schedule. Cal has three, one of which is already at Oregon State and another at San Diego State. SMU similarly has three games listed, two on the road. Among the rest of the ACC, only a few schools have a public opening, like Duke, Miami and Pitt. It’s worth keeping in mind The CW has television deals with the Pac-12 and the ACC.

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Elsewhere in FBS, independent UMass is moving to the MAC next year, while UConn has 11 of 12 games announced publicly, and Notre Dame has one opening.

But the biggest hurdle is the calendar. OSU is booked through September. WSU only has one September open date and a TBD date with Washington. The issue of scheduling as an independent has always been finding games in October and November when everyone else is in the middle of conference play. Especially teams that will travel to the Pacific Northwest at that time of year. That’s why the MW agreement for 2024 made the most sense at the time.

The disintegration of the scheduling agreement highlights how the Pac-2 and Mountain West have grown apart on a potential merger, even before playing their scheduled games this season. While the scheduling agreement incentivized the Pac-12 to add all MW members at no cost (or pay a steep price to add some but not all), OSU and WSU have remained patient, waiting to see if another surprise round of realignment could lead to a Power 4 conference invitation. The Mountain West, meanwhile, is getting tired of waiting around as a public backup option after handing out a 2024 lifeline.

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The MW/Pac-2 schedule contract is still intact until Aug. 1, 2025, and many obligations in it survive for two years past the end of the agreement. That includes penalties if OSU or WSU joins a conference that is not the Mountain West or a Power 4 conference.

For now, it appears OSU and WSU will try to cobble together a 2025 schedule based on what’s left on the board and then figure out a long-term future. They have time, but not much time.

(Top photo: Ali Gradischer / Getty Images)