The Pacific 12 Conference announced Thursday that Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, and Fresno State would be joining from the Mountain West Conference beginning in 2026.
These additions signal a significant change for a conference that saw 10 of its teams exiting for other conferences over the past year, leaving Washington State University (WSU) and Oregon State University (OSU) to fend for themselves.
The Pac-12′s board of directors unanimously voted to include the four new Mountain West schools and all sports into the conference beginning in the 2026-2027 school year, according to a news release about the realignment.
All four of the new schools were evaluated on a variety of factors that included academic and athletic performance, media and brand evaluation, commitment to success, geography, and culture.
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said in a news release about the conference realignment that the conference has “been recognized as a leading brand in intercollegiate athletics” and that it wanted to continue the history of excellence with the new additions.
“We will continue to pursue bold cutting-edge opportunities for growth and progress to best serve our member institutions and student-athletes. I am thankful to our board for their efforts to welcome Boise State University, Colorado State University, California State University, Fresno, and San Diego State University to the conference. An exciting new era for the Pac-12 Conference begins today,” she said.
A joint statement from Oregon State University President Jayathi Murthy and Washington State University President Kirk Schulz added that the two sides “eagerly anticipate” the beginning of the 2026 season and the “uniquely insightful contributions” that every university will acquire from this experience.
“We are honored to welcome the distinguished leadership of Boise State University President Dr. Marlene Tromp, Colorado State University President Amy Parsons, California State University, Fresno President Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval, and San Diego State University President Dr. Adela de la Torre to the Pac-12 Board of Directors,” they said in the statement.
Although the conference will likely make a lot of money by remaining intact for the foreseeable future, it will also have to make a significant payment to the MWC to help facilitate the transition.
Bylaws within the MWC dictate that every university will be required to pay it $18 million for moving with a two-year notice, resulting in the MWC being poised to receive roughly $72 million for the exit of the four teams, per ESPN.
Additionally, the Pac-12 will owe the MWC more than $40 million for poaching fees that were agreed upon when the two conferences came to a scheduling agreement for the 2024 season.
The addition of these four MWC teams comes shortly after the two conferences failed to agree on a scheduling deal that would have extended the collaboration into the 2025 season, resulting in both WSU and OSU having to build independent schedules for next season, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
While these additions have helped rejuvenate a depleted conference following the most recent realignment, the Pac-12 said that it expects to continue adding universities in the future.
The news release stated that the six teams will now collaborate to determine additional universities that could join the conference, though no indication has been made about which schools are being considered.
