Washington
Oregon State, Washington State start Pac-12 rebuild with 4 Mountain West schools
![Oregon State, Washington State start Pac-12 rebuild with 4 Mountain West schools Oregon State, Washington State start Pac-12 rebuild with 4 Mountain West schools](https://www.oregonlive.com/resizer/v2/6MCNGSEYSBAXLBUXM7CY5PA73M.jpg?auth=8351010226e157f1521d501da642c2c04e894ce30ae5ea832b75b57e03b2cf9d&width=1280&quality=90)
Oregon State and Washington State are moving ahead with a plan to rebuild the Pac-12 by adding four of the Mountain West’s top schools, The Oregonian/OregonLive has confirmed.
Yahoo Sports first reported Wednesday night that the Pac-12 is eyeing Colorado State, San Diego State, Boise State and Fresno State as part of a rebuilt conference beginning with the 2026-27 school year.
Another media report says an announcement could come as soon as Thursday.
Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes did not respond to a text requesting corroboration.
The Pac-12 is looking to rebuild a conference with football strength in mind in order to make a case for an automatic CFP berth. Adding Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State is the first step toward expanding the Pac-12 to at least eight schools, the NCAA required minimum to qualify as an FBS conference. It is unknown if a rebuilt Pac-12 would regain the same autonomous status as the current four Power conferences.
Boise State has been one of top Group of 5 football programs for the past 20 years. Fresno State has often contended for the Mountain West title, and has more than a dozen wins over Power conference schools. Colorado State offers the Denver market, and San Diego State an entrance into Southern California.
The Pac-12, currently made up of Oregon State and Washington State, was given a two-year grace period by the NCAA to rebuild the conference beginning this school year. It must reach the eight-school minimum by July 2026.
The cost of moving the four MWC schools to the Pac-12 is $111 million. The Pac-12 would owe the MWC a $43 million withdrawal fee, in addition to the four schools each paying a $17 million exit fee. Should Fresno State, Colorado State, Boise State and San Diego State leave the MWC, it would leave that conference with seven schools. Presumably, one or two of those remaining Mountain West schools could become an eventual Pac-12 expansion target.
In filling out the rest of the Pac-12, other current top G5 schools could be in play. Then there’s Stanford and California, depending on what happens to the ACC during the next 12 to 18 months. The Pac-12 has significant assets, from its settlement with the departing 10 schools, plus Rose Bowl, CFP and NCAA men’s basketball revenue.
The move comes less than two weeks after Pac-12 and MWC couldn’t come to a scheduling agreement for the 2025 football season. Oregon State and Washington State have yet to announce a 2025 football schedule, though both schools have contracts for six games each and are thought to be close to wrapping up the remaining six games.
–Nick Daschel can be reached at 360-607-4824, ndaschel@oregonian.com or @nickdaschel.
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Washington
Commanders vs. Giants | Week 2 injury report
There was no hiding what the priority was for the Washington Commanders heading into the offseason with a new head coach and general manage. The main question was how long that would take, and after Sunday’s 37-20 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it’s clear there’s still a long way to go.
Washington
Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Trump’s disappointing debate, moderator bias, and Taylor Swift weighs in – Washington Examiner
![Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Trump’s disappointing debate, moderator bias, and Taylor Swift weighs in – Washington Examiner Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Trump’s disappointing debate, moderator bias, and Taylor Swift weighs in – Washington Examiner](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/trump-harris-jobs.webp)
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met for the first time last night on the debate stage in what became a sparring match on policy. The moderators started the night with questions on the economy. Scott Jennings, a longtime adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), thought Trump won the first 15 minutes by speaking on the economy and inflation but that his winning streak ran out after that.
Harris seemed to get under Trump’s skin during the immigration question, and he wasn’t able to course-correct for the rest of the debate. He was “agitated,” University of New Hampshire professor James Farrell told the Washington Examiner’s Haisten Willis, while Harris remained, for the most part, calm.
However, not all viewers were impressed with Harris’s performance. Kirstin Kiledal, professor of rhetoric at Hillsdale College, told Haisten she gave her a grade of “fail” against Trump’s grade of “pass.”
“‘I believe’ and ‘I have a plan’ and ‘I know,’ however many times you repeat them, do not equal ‘I have a dream,’” Kiledal said. “That is the primary problem. She tells us that she has a plan and that leaders must have a vision, but the only vision here is MAGA. It is inseparable from the Trump campaign.”
Harris reiterated her claim of having a plan many times throughout the night despite only publishing a policy section on her website this week. She repeated her idea to give new small businesses a $50,000 tax deduction rather than the current $5,000 one, as well as her goal to increase the child tax credit to $6,000.
On the border, however, she evaded the question of why the Biden administration waited until six months before the election to cap the number of people allowed in, a policy that has successfully decreased the number of people crossing the border.
“Then, the immigration question happened,” Jennings told Haisten. “She evaded responsibility for any of it and pivoted to taunting him on his rallies. And [after that, she was] largely … in control of the debate. He had a few moments, and she has lied terribly about a number of things, but I’d say he won the first 15 minutes, and the rest, she’s been dictating the flow of the debate.”
Click here to read more reactions to the debate.
On abortion
As Harris said last night, Trump is no longer running against President Joe Biden, and on the abortion question, it showed. Whereas Biden and Harris are largely aligned when it comes to abortion, Harris was able to deliver the Democrats’ argument in a passionate and genuine way that Biden never was. Trump largely looked straight ahead, unflinching, while Harris told anecdotes about women miscarrying in their car because of the difficulty of receiving treatment following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and subsequent changes to abortion access.
Trump was asked about his own stance on this issue quite forcibly by the moderators. The former president has said he is in favor of the issue being decided by the states but was unclear about whether he would sign a national abortion ban. When reminded that his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), said he would, Trump responded, “I didn’t discuss it with J.D.”
Click here to read more takeaways from the evening.
Moderator fact-checking or bias?
Following the debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis faced swift backlash over their fact-checking of Trump. Frank Luntz, the GOP pollster, wrote on X that Muir “arguing with Trump will fuel the narrative that these moderators are biased against him.”
Several Trump surrogates echoed those comments in the spin room following the debate. “I thought that they definitely leaned to the left side of American politics,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told Mabinty Quarshie. “But listen, as a Republican, we’re accustomed to dealing with moderators who don’t play it straight down the middle and keep Democrat members on task.”
During the debate, the ABC News anchors fact-checked Trump on his claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
“Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said in a moment that went viral.
“You bring up Springfield, Ohio, and ABC News did reach out to the city manager there,” Muir responded. “He told us there had been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being used by individuals within the immigrant community.”
A similar situation occurred after Trump’s answer on abortion when he claimed it was legal to “execute” a baby after it was born under some abortion laws.
“There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born,” Davis said bluntly before turning her attention to Harris.
Harris did not receive the same “fact-checking” as Trump did.
Click here for more about Harris not being held accountable.
What else you missed
Biggest zingers from first Trump-Harris presidential debate
Harris brings debate fight to Trump in a way Biden could not
Taylor Swift endorses Harris with ‘childless cat lady’ swipe
Presidential debate: Fact-checking Harris’s statements on fracking
In nondebate news
Kroger-Albertsons merger: Why the FTC says it will raise food prices
Kelly Ayotte and Joyce Craig head to competitive race for New Hampshire governor
Four takeaways from hearing with migrant crime victims
To know today
Biden and Harris will start the day in New York City for a 9/11 commemoration ceremony at ground zero. They will then head to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for a wreath-laying ceremony commemorating Flight 93. Finally, they will head back to Washington, D.C., for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon.
The Senate has an 11 a.m. meeting to consider judicial nominees.
Washington
KING 5 Washington gubernatorial debate was an embarrassment
![KING 5 Washington gubernatorial debate was an embarrassment KING 5 Washington gubernatorial debate was an embarrassment](https://mynorthwest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/ferguson-reichert-split-C0924.jpg)
KING 5 hosted the Washington gubernatorial debate between Republican Dave Reichert and Democrat Bob Ferguson. Everyone involved in the planning and execution of this debacle should never be allowed near a debate stage again.
Washington is facing serious crises: violent crime is surging, especially among juveniles, gas and housing prices are through the roof, and homelessness is out of control. On top of that, too many are dying from drug overdoses. These issues demand attention.
It would be great if voters were able to here a substantive debate on these issues. But we didn’t. KING 5 designed a debate that only allowed one minute responses from Reichert and Ferguson and 45 second rebuttals. It was a joke.
Was this the worst version of a debate KING 5 could produce?
How do you solve the crime crisis? You can’t answer that loaded question in 60 seconds. How do we get housing costs under control? They gave 45 seconds for that one. Can you explain how you’ll rein in government spending in a minute? Of course not. No one could with such a short allotment of time.
Reichert did his best to get specific. He pointed out that while Ferguson was on a hiring spree for hundreds of attorneys, Democrats were running cops out of town. Reichert rightfully called out Ferguson for helping legalize drugs, while expecting us to believe he’ll fix the crisis. And he highlighted how Ferguson was conveniently silent on the soft-on-crime policies his party passed, which got us into this mess.
Ferguson, meanwhile, danced around tough questions, made laughable promises to fix problems he helped create, whined about Reichert fact checking him in real time, and mentioned Donald Trump more times than Kamala Harris did in her own presidential debate. Ferguson’s got a sickness — a bizarre obsession with Trump that he hopes Washington voters share.
KING 5 didn’t serve anyone
KING 5 served no one but themselves, and the irony is, they failed even at that.
In a petty move, KING 5 refused to allow a simulcast of the Washington gubernatorial debate, trying to funnel viewers to their own network. Even the national networks didn’t stoop that low — they allowed simulcasts of presidential debates because they understood voters deserve to hear where candidates stand. But KING 5? They couldn’t care less.
The real kicker? The debate they hoped would bring them attention won’t even do that. The format was a joke, and the set looked like a high school drama club’s attempt at stage design. The podiums wobbled, the lighting was so bad it cast distracting shadows on Reichert, and the whole production screamed amateur hour. The drama kids at Auburn Riverside High School (Go Ravens!) could have done a better job.
These details matter — unless, of course, you don’t care how you come off. And maybe that’s the point. KING 5 didn’t care about putting on a quality debate. They just wanted to pat themselves on the back for hosting one.
Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason on X, formerly known as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
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