Apr. 29—PULLMAN — Washington State and Oregon State haven't finalized the rebuilt Pac-12's full membership, but the two-team conference has finalized its media rights agreement for 2025.
Five of the Cougars' six home games will be broadcast nationally on the CW, according to a Tuesday morning release, with the Sept. 20 Apple Cup in Pullman set for a 4:30/5 p.m. kickoff on CBS Sports. The CW will broadcast nine of WSU's and OSU's home games this fall, and ESPN will carry two Beavers contests.
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The CW aired five of WSU's six home games last season in the wake of the traditional Pac-12's dismantling, which took effect in August .
Terms of the agreement were not released. In a Zoom news conference Tuesday afternoon, WSU athletic director Anne McCoy declined to detail them. She also declined to give details on the rebuilt Pac-12's long-term media rights agreement, which will start in 2026 with the launch of the new conference, which still needs to add one more football-playing member.
Here is WSU's 2025 home football schedule, with kickoff times and broadcast details:
Aug. 30 vs. Idaho, 7 p.m. on the CW
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Sept. 6 vs. San Diego State, 7:15 p.m. on the CW
Sept. 20 vs. Washington, 4:30 p.m. or 5 p.m. on CBS
Oct. 25 vs. Toledo, 12:30 p.m. on the CW
Nov. 15 vs. Louisiana Tech, 7 p.m. on the CW
Nov. 29 vs. Oregon State, 3:30 p.m. on the CW
WSU's first of two matchups with Oregon State on the season, Nov. 1 in Corvallis, is slated for a 4:30 or 5 p.m. kickoff on CBS.
"We are excited to see Cougar Football return to the CW Network for the 2025 season as well as having CBS broadcast the Apple Cup in Pullman," McCoy said via release. "The 2024 season, our first on the CW, resulted in expanded national exposure for the Pac-12 and tremendous ratings for WSU Football. Building on last year's partnership and adding CBS to our home broadcast schedule ensures Cougar fans everywhere will be able to follow their favorite team."
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WSU's other five road games — at North Texas, Colorado State, Ole Miss, Virginia and James Madison — will be broadcast according to the media rights deals in those teams' conferences.
The American Athletic Conference (North Texas) has an agreement with ESPN. The Mountain West (Colorado State) has a deal with CBS and Fox. The SEC (Ole Miss), ACC (Virginia) and Sun Belt (James Madison) have agreements with ESPN.
Last season, all but one WSU home game was broadcast on the CW, which will again be the case in 2025. For the Cougars, the main difference this fall will be that they won't have as many games on other national networks like FS1, Fox and Peacock, which picked up one WSU game apiece in 2024.
WSU's home game against Washington and road contest against Oregon State will both be streamed on Paramount+, according to the release.
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The Pac-12's full media rights agreement for 2026 and beyond, which is when the conference is required to have eight football-playing members (one more than now), will be announced later. On Zoom, McCoy said she and other officials with the conference met on Monday night, along with sports agency Octagon, which the Pac-12 is enlisting to help negotiate media rights agreements.
"Although I don't know an actual timeline," McCoy said, "I'm not concerned about it, because we really have had a lot of great progress and a ton of interest and excitement around the Pac-12, a lot of really exciting partners that would like to be involved. So I think that's encouraging. Now it's just a matter of finalizing everything when the time is right."
McCoy also declined to detail WSU's athletics budget for the fiscal year 2026, which starts on July 1, saying that "the university is doing budget hearings, and we're in the process of working through all of that right now."
The Cougars' athletics budget for the fiscal year 2025 was $74 million, down from $85 million in 2024, signaling — among other factors — the impact of the traditional Pac-12's collapse on the university.