With the fall of the Pac-12, our Washington State Cougars now bow to the whims of the Mountain West Conference or West Coast Conference. That was evident this week when the WCC announced its conference matchups for the men’s basketball season coming this fall.
The conference hasn’t announced a schedule, but rather who teams will play and how many times. Here’s who WSU will play once at home and once on the road:
- Gonzaga (yay?)
- Saint Mary’s
- San Francisco
- Santa Clara
- Portland
- Pepperdine
- San Diego
- Pacific
Notice anyone missing? That would be the Oregon State Beavers, the other school picking up the scraps left behind from the rest of the now-former Pac-12. The two teams will only meet once this season, in Corvallis.
Why the WCC didn’t give the Cougs and Beavs a home-and-home series is mind boggling. Clearly it’s not up to the schools, because I’d have to believe WSU and OSU would push for playing each other twice.
No matter how much love there was last fall when WSU and OSU matched up in football amidst the Pac-12 breakup, there will always be outside forces trying to break us up. Makes me thing of this Dan in Real Life scene:
All hyperbole aside, it’s awfully weird that an easy travel partner would be denied a return trip so the Cougs and other teams can build up some air miles.
The other news from this announcement is the return of the WSU-Gonzaga rivalry, which hasn’t happened since 2015. Boy, I just can’t wait for the two fan bases to pick up the chatter for those games.