Washington State and Oregon State might not be bound for the Mountain West in the near future.

The Cougars and Beavers are the last two remaining PAC-12 programs following the conference imploding. The rest of the once-powerful conference split for the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.

WSU and OSU were left dangling in the wind, and eventually reached a scheduling agreement with the MWC. The belief has been that there would be some kind of merger.

A popular theory has been that the MWC will be folded under the PAC-12 banner (I have a Las Vegas dinner riding on a bet that this won’t actually happen), or that the Beavers and Cougars could join the MWC.

Washington State, Oregon State face uncertain future.

It might be time to tap the brakes on those theories, according to a new report from CBS Sports. The interest might not be there as originally thought, but not from the side you’d think. The MWC reportedly has cooled on the idea of some kind of merger.

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd reported the following, in part, on the situation Oregon State and Washington State are in:

“On the surface, it makes sense for the best Group of Five conference to take in the last two Power Five schools remaining from the realignment chaos. 

But after a week of speaking to industry sources during various media days, there seems to be momentum toward the Mountain West cooling on inclusion of Oregon State and Washington State. Such a move has been portrayed as expansion, a merger or a reverse-merger. (Although, it’s hard to envision who reverse-merges with whom.)

The Mountain West has a scheduling agreement with both teams for the 2024 season with a mutual option to continue the partnership in 2025. Might as well make that a Mountain West option because it’s becoming clear the conference doesn’t necessarily need or even want the Beavers and Cougars on a full-time membership basis.”

To be clear, there’s still plenty of time for something to happen and as Dodd pointed out himself, a merger is certainly possible. However, if the MWC has cooled on the idea of adding the final two PAC-12 teams, then they’re both in pretty big trouble.

What other options are out there? The answer is there really aren’t any. Perhaps they could try to poach other small schools from around the country, but that’s a plan that seems destined to fail.

The main reason why is TV money. If MWC schools stay where they are, then the duo would have to go hunting in regions of the country that aren’t close at all. That makes travel expensive, and the conference still wouldn’t have any real TV value.

It’s been a “MWC or bust” mentality seemingly since the PAC-12 imploded, and if the Mountain West isn’t returning the feeling, then it might be time for fans to start getting very nervous. Let me know what you think at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.