The face of college football in 2024 is vastly different following the breakup of several conferences, most notably the Pac-12.
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington have decided to pull out of the Pac-12 and instead migrate cross country to the Big Ten while and Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah have chosen to land in the Big 12.
Then news broke that Cal and Stanford would be going to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. That leaves just two teams left in the Pac-12: Oregon State and Washington State.
Oregon State and Washington State have officially made a scheduling deal with the Mountain West Conference for this season. MW teams will play seven games against league opponents with another against either OSU or WSU.
This year’s matchups will not count in the MW standings and neither Pac-12 team will be eligible for the MW championship.
A merger between the MW and the two Pac-12 schools remains a possibility, either with the Pac-12 schools joining the MW or selected MW teams helping the Pac-12 reestablish itself.
SDSU will play both Oregon State and Washington State this season, thus adding a bit of luster to the Aztecs’ season schedule.
SDSU will also play at Cal-Berkeley, a third current or former Pac-12 team, in a non-conference game on Saturday, Sept. 14 (7:30 p.m. kickoff).
The Aztecs didn’t fare too well in their first encounter with a Pac-12 team this season by coming out on the short end of a 21-0 loss to the Beavers in front of 25,318 fans at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday.
Oregon State led 7-0 at halftime on a 16-yard run by Jam Griffin. The Beavers added two fourth-quarter touchdowns to round out the final score — a 15-yard run by Anthony Hankerson and a 21-yard TD catch by Bryce Caufield.
The Pacific Northwest visitors racked up a decisive 420-179 edge in total offensive yards.
Marquez Cooper, who scored two touchdowns in the Aztecs’ season opening win over Texas A&M-Commerce, was held to 53 yards on 13 carries. Freshman quarterback Danny O’Neil completed 11 of 24 passes for 107 yards and was sacked once.
Louis Brown IV had two catches for 45 yards while Ja’Shaun Poke had three catches for 25 yards. Tyler Pastula averaged 48.6 yards on seven punts with a long of 63 yards.
Tano Letuli ranked second on the team with seven tackles (behind Chris Johnson with nine tackles. Eastlake’s Trey White had four tackles.
SDSU will host Washington State Oct. 26 (7:30 p.m. kickoff). The Cougars are off to a fast 2-0 start with blowout wins over Portland State (70-30 on Aug. 31) and Texas Tech (37-16 last Saturday).
The Cougars will play at Washington this Saturday in the teams’ heated intra-state rivalry. The Huskies are also 2-0 following wins over Weber State (35-3 on Aug. 31) and Eastern Michigan (30-9 on Saturday).
The MWC includes 12 teams.
