KREM

Owners (since 2019) are retiring, so the place is available again.

Ingested many calories there during my time in Pullman.

Looks like we have another waning of the spambots. As I have said, report them then ignore them. Cleans things up a lot as Rivals continues to address the issue.

So I started this thread on the non-cheapskate board, but those 8 guys all seem to be asleep. Here we go.

There have been a couple of recent articles (NY Times, Salt Lake Tribune) about waining interest in a Pac-2/Mtn West merger, but they are behind paywalls. Link below is the one "free" article I found. Looks pretty bleak to me. What I envision now is the Pac-2 futzing around waiting for the never-to-happen phone call from the Big-12 or ACC, then having to beg the Mtn West to take us in on July 1, 2026, thus losing about $30M in future NCAA BB allocations. Which we would lose anyway if we went somewhere else.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/ot...th-pac-12-drama/ar-BB1quP65?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Pac-12, Mountain West ‘too far apart’ as negotiations over 2025 scheduling partnership break down​

Jon Wilner
Sep. 1, 2024 at 9:25 pm
The Sunday deadline for the Pac-12 and Mountain West to extend their football scheduling partnership came and went without a deal.

Don’t expect them to revisit talks at a later date, either.

An agreement for the 2025 season “isn’t happening at all,” according to a source familiar with the discussions. The sides are simply “too far apart.”

Instead, Washington State and Oregon State are exploring other options to complete their 2025 schedules.

However, the source cautioned that the lack of a deal with the Mountain West did not indicate a partnership with the ACC or Big 12 — or any other league, for that matter — was imminent.

Nor does the breakdown in talks rule out the possibility of a longer-term merger, in some form, between the Pac-12 and the Mountain West.

“Don’t rule out something for 2026 and beyond,” the source added.

Washington State and Oregon State are operating as a two-team conference for the 2024-25 seasons, based on the NCAA’s two-year grace period for conferences depleted by realignment. By the summer of 2026, the Cougars and Beavers must join another conference or rebuild the Pac-12 to at least eight schools.

The scheduling partnership with the Mountain West provides both WSU and OSU with six games (three home, three away) for the 2024 season.

In exchange for the competition, the Pac-12 schools will pay the Mountain West approximately $15 million, which includes an administrative fee, participation fee and scheduling fee (for each game in Pullman and Corvallis).

The contract does not include a fee structure for the 2025 season. The payments would have been negotiated all over again, the source said.

But the financial piece wasn’t the only hurdle. Extending the agreement into 2025 didn’t fit smoothly within the Pac-12’s long-haul strategic plan, which leans heavily into remaining as flexible as possible — in case of additional realignment — and preserving the cash to act on any opportunities.

As part of their settlement with the 10 departed schools, Washington State and Oregon State are withholding a total of $65 million in campus distributions. That cash could be used to pay all, or a portion of the poaching penalty.

Additionally, the Cougars and Beavers have more than $150 million in assets at their disposal (over the course of several years) from the Pac-12’s postseason football and basketball contracts.

“There will be some of those funds set aside that, as different scenarios emerge, we do have some resources available to us for our strategic priorities moving forward and whatever we might need to do to support our conference affiliation strategy,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said recently on ‘Canzano and Wilner: The Podcast.’

For next season, the Cougars and Beavers are exploring a plethora of options and need a total of 12 games (combined) to fill out their schedules.

At this point, WSU has six opponents lined up for next season: North Texas, San Diego State, Idaho, Washington, Virginia and Oregon State.

The Beavers also have six under contract: Cal, Fresno State, Houston, Texas Tech and Oregon, plus Washington State.

Jon Wilner: jwilner@bayareanewsgroup.com

I am planning on buying about a $27 to $40 ticket to the WSU, SJSU game, if I can get a ride from Spokane, and if I can either find a place to stay in Spokane, or get a ride home from Spokane.

The reason I need to either stay in Spokane, or get a ride home from Spokane, is that the bus to Spokane only runs Monday thru Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm.

So I can get to Spokane, for the ride to the game from Spokane.

Also is there a Bus, that go from Spokane to the game, in case can't get a ride?

This may be my last chance to goto a WSU game in Martin Stadium, as sometime between Nov 4th at extreme earliest to April 4th at the latest I am very probably moving to Phoenix Arizona area to be closer to daughter.

I have my 2011 19 ft Travel Trailer RV in storage at a friend's place.

I have about $750 saved up, and saving about $150 to $265 a month, and going to pay either a Snowbird friend $1000 to $1350 to take me, trailer down there, or a shipping company about $1650 to ship my RV down there.

And there is about 3,4,5,6 RV Lot places, that rent RV Lots for about $550, $600, $650 a month, that affordable for my budget, and just need to wait for a opening.

If 1 of those don't open up, then my fall back, will be the Ben Avery Campground Shooting Range that if get a $25 a month shooting membership, then for $120 a week can stay for 168 straight days, 168 days out of year, before have to leave, can't rent again until the next year.

The Ben Avery Campground has full RV hook ups, water, dump, etc.

The Campground is 1,2,3, couple, few, semi some miles, very close to extremely close to North Phoenix.

If I have to fall back to Ben Avery Campground, I will be pounding the pavement, so to speak, working my butt off, etc, every day to find a permanent place to move to.

Some good stuff here...

Login to view embedded media

Love it (again). Poor Veldon Lane Rawlins would be rolling over in his grave if he was dead. Funny how his Wikipedia bio prominently mentions his attempt to ban Wazzu from Cougar vernacular. Interesting fun fact that he was President at Memphis before WSU and North Texas afterward. Small world.


I was at WSU when all this went down. It was a cluster. Alumni calling in to the President's office outraged. I actually have a confiscated Wazzu shirt that I lifted from a supply cabinet in French Ad. Gotta find that for Friday's game. Of course when Elson Floyd arrived from Mizzou, that all went out the window. Another fun fact? The WSU Marketing AVP that was part of the Wazzu "ban" is now the Sr. VP for Advancement.....at........uw.

I can’t be negative of this path. I understand wanting to be in a “power conference”, but the pressure was to either bid us down to 1/2 shares or in the case of the ACC, wait for implosion and then have WSU and OSU apply along with many of the schools we just picked up in a downward bidding war. This gave us the option to go in handcuffed as the bitch across the country or try and make something out of our unique situation.



Taking the four we did now secures a handful of the biggest markets available along with highly competitive programs with the option to chase others. This conference will be the group that plays the highest level of football that plays most/all games weekly in the western footprint. Now they have the freedom to add Stan and Cal if they return. UNLV if they decouple from UNR. They can also go secure UTSA with its blooming medical campus and growing football program. TX St is there as well. Tulane in Nola market.



Instead of waiting around we are now in the driver seat and can build something without being seen as the last opinion and littlest member. And whatever is made of this conference, it now exists as an option for a western pod for any conference trying to build or expand one. In the current landscape of relegation and future conference implosions, this is giving us the chance to build something decent as we see fit instead of being a whipping boy for an eastern conference. It’s not perfect but it’s better than taking it up the *ss a signing away our ability to be a full member 2000 miles away in many respects.

The Stop. Amazing human. Kyle Thornton.

Login to view embedded media

Having played our toughest game and still have 9 to go.

F-it, I'll link it below. Couple of takeaways:

• Article does mention Scott Barnes and Nick Daschel's conversation, but it isn't really anything new
• The comments slay me. Do these people follow anything Coug? X99163 (Pullman's zip code).
  "I haven't read where OSU/WSU actually ended up financially with the demise of the P12. Will the windfall pay off the football debt and buy the basketball practice facilities?"
  I mean really? Do you read at all?
• The main author/site Admin: "The MWC could've worked to make the relationship a lot more collaborative, synced and other corporate buzz words. It seems like they've been relatively adversarial from the jump because both WSU and OSU have said their goal is to rebuild the conference which leads me to
  2. They're being adversarial because they want to force WSU and OSU into what they want, which is a merger of some kind.
  
  It would appear, at least for now assuming a scheduling agreement with the Big 12/ACC or even AAC comes together, they've substantially over played their hand."
  
  
  Uh no the MWC hasn't been adversarial, they have a perfect right to be annoyed by our standoffishness and misplaced snobbiness, and not they haven't overplayed their hand. How could they do that when the Pac-2 doesn't even have a hand to play?
  
  And I thought this site was full of all the uninformed and delusional posters.
• 
  
• https://www.cougcenter.com/2024/9/2/24234631/pac-12-acc-big-12-mwc-wsu-cougars-osu-beavers
  
  
  

So I rewatched the end of the game just to get a better sense of the insanity of that final 1:30. One thing that happened that pissed me off at the time but forgot in the midst of everything else is how quick the officials were to blow plays dead and reset the clock to give the mutts more time. We snapped the ball at 1:04, ran a play and somehow only used 2 seconds. In the 1997 Rose Bowl....they wouldn't give us credit for spiking the ball in 2 seconds. I still want my 2nd second back.

It happened all game but it was amazing to see the lack of discipline by the mutts in that final minute. Three penalties in that final minute. Valdez for UW might be player of the game. He kept two of our drives alive with offsides penalties where he made contact with the center. Special level of stupid to manage that feat. The one shot of Jedd Fisch looking out onto the field after one of the penalties with the look of "what the f#ck are you guys doing?" was pretty hilarious.

After seeing so many games where WSU snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, it was pretty refreshing to have the mutts return the favor.

We can do this because we are fans…players…go 1-0 on Friday night please.

But…this is pretty cool, I’ve never played with it before. According to ESPNs playoff predictor we have the highest probability of any P4 team. Their computer has us making the playoffs even if we lost a game to FSU, BSU or OSU. And if we ran the table being a 5 seed. Now that I’ve jinxed us, enjoy the rest of your day.

Realignment rumor mill has ‘some value’ for WSU and Oregon State, commissioner says​

Jon WilnerAug. 12, 2024 at 1:33 pm

Not a week goes by, it seems, without Washington State and Oregon State being the subject of realignment rumors. It could be as simple as a message board riff or a tweet on X. Maybe it’s an anonymous quote published by the mainstream media.

A few have morsels of credibility, while some are pure nonsense. But all are welcomed by Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould, who’s working closely with the Cougars and Beavers as they plot a course forward.

“Part of that is not bad,” Gould told ‘Canzano and Wilner: The Podcast’ last week during a wide-ranging interview.

“All that buzz on social media and all that interest and the rumor mill and all of that, there certainly is some value in it from the perspective of, that means we have communities who care about what we’re doing …

“We want passionate fans across college sports that care about what we’re doing. From that perspective, it’s good.”

The Cougars and Beavers have until the summer of 2026 to find a permanent conference home and two fairly straightforward options available. They can rebuild the Pac-12 with schools from the Mountain West (and perhaps other Group of Five leagues), or they can join the Mountain West.

The roads back into the power conferences are vastly more complicated and far less certain. And occasionally, Gould said, the reports about behind-the-scenes machinations — either real or imagined — create messes that she must clean up.

“The rumors are challenging when they aren’t accurate and when there’s misinformation out there,” she said. “At times, it becomes difficult to manage relationships, expectations, anxieties and all these other things when there’s misinformation. It’s part of the world we’re living in now.

“The good news is I have really strong communication with (WSU and OSU), and they are kept well-briefed on what’s going on and what’s not going on.”

For the moment, Gould explained, she is “spending a lot of time” finalizing the 2025 football schedules for the Cougars and Beavers.

The scheduling arrangement with the Mountain West this season includes an option for next year if both sides agree, Gould said.

But earlier this month, the Hotline reported that WSU and OSU are in discussions with multiple conferences — in both the Power Four and the Group of Five — about strategic partnerships that could take effect as early as 2025.

Those discussions, an industry source said, aren’t specific to membership opportunities for WSU and OSU, although that option “definitely” has not been dismissed.

Instead, the conversations include possible scheduling alliances or “creative ways to work together” that could provide “a stepping stone to the future,” the source added. “It’s all at a very broad level.”

Gould declined to discuss specific options for the Cougars and Beavers. But eventual membership in the ACC, despite the geography — and despite speculation on X — might be more likely than an invitation to the Big 12.

If Clemson and Florida State win their lawsuits against the ACC and are free to join other leagues, North Carolina could follow them out the door.

At that point, the depleted conference might seek to fortify its membership. WSU and OSU would offer quality football brands, create additional Pacific Time Zone kickoff windows and ease the bicoastal travel for Cal and Stanford, the only ACC schools west of the Rockies.

For now, the Cougars and Beavers are watching the situation play out.

“Moving forward, regardless of what that scenario is — and there are a lot of different iterations or scenarios out there — we’ll continue to overturn every stone we know of, and try to create some stones we don’t know of, to figure out what scenarios are possible,” Gould said.

“I don’t think there is a foregone conclusion about what is best, because we’re still evaluating what is possible.”

Jon Wilner