Report: Washington State, Oregon State to join West Coast Conference for basketball
It appears Gonzaga men's basketball will have two new temporary rivals in the West Coast Conference next season.
Reports surfaced Wednesday that Oregon State and Washington State are set to join the WCC as affiliate members, with the exception of football and baseball programs, for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, per CBS Sports. League presidents and athletic directors are scheduled to vote on the matter Thursday morning. The move would increase the WCC to 11 teams in both men's and women's basketball.
As members from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2026, Oregon State and Washington State will be eligible to compete for regular-season and postseason WCC championships, as well as automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Tournament.
League schedules for basketball will increase from 16 games to 18 or 20, per CBS Sports, including tweaks to the WCC Tournament format. Financial payouts for units earned in the NCAA Tournament have not been revealed.
CBS Sports reported the WCC is "still pursuing further expansion" in the next few years with the possibility that Gonzaga leaves for the Big 12 or another Big 6 league. For Oregon State and Washington State, the Mountain West Conference would be interested in having the two schools long-term for all sports once the legal and financial implications involving the fallout of the Pac-12 are resolved.
Oregon State and Washington State already have a scheduling agreement for football with the Mountain West.
For now, the WCC improves its quality of competition with two former power conference schools that are located along the general West Coast. The Beavers are just a few seasons removed from an Elite Eight appearance in the 2021 NCAA Tournament under head coach Wayne Tinkle. The Cougars (8-2) are off to a hot start in 2023 behind freshman guard Myles Rice. Head coach Kyle Smith is quite familiar with the WCC as a former head coach at San Francisco (2016-19).
Especially considering the league lost BYU to the Big 12, Gonzaga will have two more quality opponents on its docket for the next two seasons.
Oregon State and Washington State remained in control of voting rights and financial decisions of the Pac-12 after the Washington Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the University of Washington and the other outgoing members of the league. The two schools believe there is a path to rebuilding the power conference, though they'll have until 2026 to bring in at least six other schools to qualify under NCAA rules.
