Oregon State and Washington State may have found a new home on the hardwood.
The pair of programs that have come to be thought of as the “Pac-2” are in talks to join the Mountain West for the 2024-25 basketball season, CBS Sports insider Jon Rothstein shared Thursday on his College Hoops Today blog.
While Rothstein noted “there is no timetable on an official announcement,” the move appears imminent following news that the schools entered into a football scheduling agreement with the Mountain West earlier this month.
In the teams’ football arrangement with the Mountain West, all existing squads in the league — including Utah State — will play one game against either the Beavers or Cougars each season, though the contests will not count toward the conference standings.
It is unclear if a basketball alliance would operate in similar fashion or if Oregon State and Washington State would participate in conference tournament action.
Oregon State and Washington State were the odd men out of this past summer’s realignment purge of the Pac-12. They failed to find an escape option as the rest of their conference mates bailed for the Big Ten and Big 12.
A November court ruling put the two schools in control of the Pac-12’s future, holding a two-year grace period for attempting to fill the league with new programs going forward.
However, per ESPN, it is expected that “OSU and WSU will (eventually) formally merge with the Mountain West schools.”