Lost in the post-Fla State exclusion fallout, the Pac announced that they will continue as a conference next year, with Oregon State and Washington State as members.

Apparently NCAA rules allow them to be this way for 2 yrs before they have to add teams, or dissolve.

Both schools have reached a deal (sorta like Notre Dame with the ACC) where they each play 6 Mountain West teams apiece, but those games don't count as Mountain West games. I assume that is to fill out their schedules; then each gets their usual 3 OOC games, plus each other, plus 2 more games (I suspect a game against the instate rival, and 1 more like Stanford or Cal), where it is mutually beneficial to cut down travel for both schools..

This would be like if the SEC collapsed, but Ole Miss and Miss State remained "SEC" and cut a deal with the Sunbelt to fill up the rest of the schedule... with the Egg Bowl being the entire conference schedule.

Of significant note, while Washington State went 5-7, Oregon State went 8-4 and finished 19th in the Playoff poll. Yep, ahead of Liberty and SMU.

So basically, both teams should roll through most of their OOC schedule (3 cupcakes, + 6 MWC games), to where at least one should have 8 wins out of that group. 1 game winner-take-all game for the conference title, which I give the edge to Oregon State as of now.
Any ranking at all would put them safely in the Top 6 Conference winners, and an automatic playoff berth; which should help recruiting vs those teams that left for the Big 10, and now have to deal with fighting Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State for playoff spots.

It's a small window, 2 yrs as I said, but Oregon State could play it into becoming a perennial playoff team. Build back the Pac with beatable teams, and you maintain that spot.