With the final departure of Cal and Stanford to the ACC, the Oregon State and Washington State football programs have been officially left in the ashes of the once proud Pac-12. Formerly known as the conference of champions, there are only two teams remaining after a media rights fight left the group barren, and the Mountain West is trying to jump in and save the shipwreck.

What started with USC and UCLA leaving for the Big 10 conference last season, Oregon and Washington followed suit this summer, creating a domino effect. While those talks were ongoing, Colorado decided to jump ship back to the Big 12, and were joined by Utah, Arizona, and Arizona State when all was said and done.

With only two schools remaining of the 12, there are many decisions to be made by conference executives and the boards of Washington State and Oregon State. The Mountain West is looking to envelop the last two schools in a reverse merger of sorts, but deal with the media rights and revenue disparity that comes with it.

Many of the current Mountain West members are allegedly in favor of the move, according to Amanda Christovich of Front Office Sports, and would like to rename the conference as the Pac-12. They would have to deal with the legal ramifications of claiming the Pac-12's intellectual property.

They will also have to rework the Mountain West's current media deal with CBS Sports Network and FOX, which pays out $4 million annually. That is a far cry from the Pac-12's previous deal that was expiring in 2024, and was doling out $37 million per school. Amid declining revenues, a figure of that magnitude was not possible to renew, which caused the schools to begin jumping ship.