Pac-12 Rebuilds With Mountain West Programs For 2026
The Pac-12 Conference will return to competition in 2026 with an entirely reshaped membership, two years after realignment reduced it to just two football-playing schools. Oregon State and Washington State, the lone holdovers from the conference's previous era, will be joined by six new members to form an eight-team league.
The conference's collapse followed years of struggle to secure a competitive media rights deal as the sport's finances shifted around name, image and likeness compensation. Washington, Oregon, UCLA and USC left for the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah moved to the Big 12; and Cal and Stanford joined the ACC. That exodus left Oregon State and Washington State as the conference's only remaining football members, ending decades-old traditions including the Pac-12 basketball tournament in Las Vegas and the "Pac-12 After Dark" late-night broadcast slot. The Apple Cup rivalry between the two remaining schools was shifted to earlier in the season. netball bet
The rebuilt Pac-12 will add five programs from the Mountain West - Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State - along with Texas State from the Sun Belt Conference. Boise State, known for its blue home field, has long been regarded as a top program outside college football's power conferences. Fresno State and Utah State both reached bowl games in 2025, while Texas State has won a bowl game in each of the past three seasons. Colorado State will be led by Jim Mora, formerly the head coach at UCLA. In basketball, Gonzaga will join as a ninth member; the Bulldogs have reached the NCAA Tournament in 17 consecutive seasons, including national championship game appearances in 2017 and 2021.
Under current College Football Playoff qualification rules, a team from outside the sport's power conferences must finish ranked above every other Group of Six opponent in the final top 25 to earn an automatic playoff berth. The new Pac-12 will compete for that distinction starting in the 2026 season, positioning itself as one of the strongest leagues among the sport's non-power conferences in both football and basketball.
