OLYMPIA, Wash. — The news of the University of Washington leaving the Pac-12 has raised a lot of questions about the school’s rivalry and partnership with Washington State. While UW heads for the Big 10, WSU's future is far more unclear. The Cougars are just a handful of schools left in the Pac-12.
After more than 100 years of sharing the same conference, Washington and Washington State now find themselves unaligned and facing big questions about the future of their rivalry.
THE QUESTION
Several viewers, including John, reached out to our VERIFY team to ask, "Was there any attempt by the state to keep UW and WSU together?"
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
SB 5206 was introduced in January. It leaned into the shared history of WSU and UW and reads in part, “It is in the public's interest to preserve the shared state history and athletic achievement of the University of Washington and Washington State University by maintaining these schools in the same athletic conference.”
Sen. MacEwen is the main sponsor of the bill.
"So, the objective of the bill was to, one, have WSU and U DUB stay together. That if they move conferences, that they go together. And secondly, that they'd have to have legislative approval," Sen. MacEwen explained. "Both schools receive significant taxpayer funding, I believe that the taxpayers have a right to have oversight to a certain degree via the legislature on major decisions. And certainly, changing conferences is a major decision for either school."
The Senator acknowledges it would have been difficult to get the bill passed, however, it never even got a hearing after he says both schools pressured the committee chair.
"I was told at the time, and their statements that they made to me, were that we don't need this. This will be a distraction. The Pac-12 is going to be fine, There's not gonna be any more schools leaving," MacEwen said. "I don't blame the University of Washington for exploring its options, but WSU passed up an opportunity to potentially have a solution for themselves through this bill."
So, we can Verify – Yes, there was a bill to try and keep UW and WSU in the same conference, but it never made it out of committee.
Sen. MacEwen said at this point there are no plans to reintroduce the bill.
"The ship has sailed. I don't think we can stop the process for the University of Washington," he said. "I think they totally disregarded the east side of the state and cared to look more towards Eugene than they did Pullman, and that's sad."
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