There was a bill to keep some Pac-12 schools in the same conference; Here's what happened to it.

The decision by the University of Washington to leave the PAC 12 will have impacts that go well beyond the one university. Coming back home after more than 100 years of sharing the same conference, UW and Washington State now find themselves unaligned and facing big questions about the future of their rivalry. You know what's it worth? I understand business, you know, I understand change. Everyone's got to change and we got to adapt and watch. You will find its way. We have for 100 and some years several viewers, including John, reached out to ask, was there any attempt by the state to keep UW and WSU together? Let's verify our sources are Washington State Senate Bill. 5206 and Senator Drew McEwen, the main sponsor of the bill. You know both schools receive significant taxpayer funding. I believe the that the the taxpayers have a right to have oversight to to a certain degree via the legislature on major decisions. And certainly changing conferences is a major decision for for either school. Senate Bill 5206 was introduced in January. It leaned into the shared history of WSU and UW and reads in part. It is in the public's interest to preserve the shared state history and athletic achievement of the University of Washington. And Washington State University by maintaining these schools in the same Athletic Conference. So the objective of the bill was to one, have WSU and UW stay together, that if they move conferences that they go together. And secondly, that they would have to have legislative approval. Does Senator acknowledges it would have been difficult to get the bill passed. However, it never even got a hearing after he says both schools pressured the committee chair. I was told at the time and their statements they made to me were that we don't need this, it'll be a distraction. The PAC 12 is going to be fine. There's not be anymore. Who's leaving? Frankly, I don't. I don't blame you, the University of Washington, for exploring its options. But WSU passed up an opportunity to potentially have a solution for themselves through this bill. So we can verify. Yes, there was a bill to try to keep UW and WSU in the same conference, but it never made it out of committee. As for what's next, well, the ship has sailed. I don't think we can stop the process from the University of Washington. I think they totally disregarded the east side of the state and cared to look more towards Eugene than they did Pullman. And that's sad.

Channel: KREM 2 News

Views: 637

Keywords: [ verify, local-sports, ncaa ], news, sports, wsu, pac 12 realignment, [ washington-state-cougars, pac 12 football, college sports, pac 12 collapse, pac 12 news, big ten, pac 12, coeur dalene, coeur dalene news, inland northwest, inland northwest news, krem, krem 2, krem 2 news, krem2, north idaho news, spokane, spokane news, pac 12 conference, pac 12 collapse, college football, big 12, ncaa, cfb, conference expansion, sports talk, conference realignment

Id: u0S1SeStNbo

Length: 2min 28sec (148 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 09 2023