PULLMAN, Wash. — As their rivalry on the field is set to draw thousands of eyes this weekend, Washington State and Oregon State universities say they're united on one front: their joint legal battle against the Pac-12 and navigating a path forward.
Leaders from both schools and their athletic departments held a press conference Thursday to address the ongoing lawsuit and what it means as they plan for the future.
That picture is complicated by the "exceedingly complex" situation with the Pac-12's financials, which WSU President Kirk Schulz says trying to get clarity on has been more difficult and time-consuming than anticipated.
"The fiscal condition of the Pac-12 conference is far from clear. While the conference may possess some valuable assets, it's also burdened with some significant liabilities," said Schulz.
Those burdens include continued public legal cases over NIL pay, existing contractual obligations, and uncertainty over some of the finer print, like where some payments go.
Schulz says they're still requesting documents from the conference and assures fans they're leaving no stone unturned.
That goes for looking at possible landing spots outside the Pac-12.
One idea that was reiterated during Thursday's update was that both schools are keeping all options open.
"The reality is there is also a grace period of two years as we think about our path forward and the multiple options that we're dealing with here," said OSU athletic director Scott Barnes.
WSU AD Pat Chun added the Pac-12 has two years to fulfill membership criteria to maintain FBS status.
Both universities want a decision sooner rather than later, though to give an absolute cut-off date for when decisions need to be made for next season were hard to come by. Chun says next to nothing in the situation is an absolute.
"There's gonna be a time and a place where decisions are going to have to be made, but we were just going to have to load ourselves up with as much information and as with many options as possible," Chun said. "I mean, we're going down a path that we're trying to be, you know, responsible to our institutions."
"To draw a line in the sand on the absolute date? No, not yet," Barnes added. "Certainly this fall. We do know, based on our modeling and our conversations with the content experts that we can put schedules together as late as late fall. We don't want to wait that long."
But, part of the hang up on a timeline is, again, a lack of clarity on the legal case and conference situation.
Schulz says as they await the scheduling of a preliminary hearing on the lawsuit, the next step in the legal action, they're also planning and discussing possible moves with other conferences.
"We're doing them at the same time. Some of the possible landing spots at our schools want to know what assets look like, what liabilities look like, what baggage we might have, what benefits we might have," Schulz said.
Conversations with the Mountain West are ongoing, OSU President Jayathi Murthy said, though no agreements have been signed.
"I can tell you that we've had very constructive conversations with their Commissioner, there's certainly mutual interest on both sides," she said.
Schulz also addressed that it's not "the ideal market" to be having discussions about media rights, which has added to the uncertainty and angst.
"Within the community, within our faculty, staff and students just, hey, what's next? What is it going to look like? Are we going to sort of lose part of our identity, because of you know, where we'll land next year," Schulz said.
Though he and Murthy agree the hazy future has also bonded not only their respective campuses, but the two nationally ranked schools are also now experiencing a tighter bond as they "fight together."
Still, Schulz preaches patience as both schools look ahead using due diligence and smart decision-making.
"I think our fans expect us to fight for each institution, understand fully what our options are," he said. "I remind our fan base consistently: patience is where you need to be right now, even though I know there's that uncertainty. I don't think it's gonna take us months to get the full picture. I am optimistic that, you know, in the next 30 days or so, we're going to have a pretty decent idea of a lot of this and that'll help our decision-making, our legal strategy."
A date for a court hearing on the lawsuit has not yet been set.
DOWNLOAD THE KREM SMARTPHONE APP
DOWNLOAD FOR IPHONE HERE | DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID HERE
HOW TO ADD THE KREM+ APP TO YOUR STREAMING DEVICE
ROKU: add the channel from the ROKU store or by searching for KREM in the Channel Store.
Fire TV: search for "KREM" to find the free app to add to your account. Another option for Fire TV is to have the app delivered directly to your Fire TV through Amazon.
To report a typo or grammatical error, please email webspokane@krem.com.