With an announcement Tuesday, the national perspective on the Pac-12, the burgeoning new/old conference that it is, shifted.
Dramatically for some, less so for others.
With Gonzaga officially joining the league, beginning in 2026, the Pac-12 will become — to many — a force to be reckoned with in men’s college basketball.
“From a college basketball perspective, the additions of some of the top programs from the Mountain West — considered the most exciting mid-major league in the sport last season — gives the Pac-12 a launching board to rebuild. The addition of Gonzaga is even more notable based on the success the program has had over the last two decades,” wrote CBS Sports’ Cameron Salerno.
He wasn’t the only one.
“And one thing about the new-world Pac-12 is now clear — it is building a college basketball powerhouse,” wrote John Canzano.
There’s also this from Jon Wilner of The Mercury News.
“… Gonzaga’s looming arrival — the Zags will begin competition in 2026-27 — dramatically changes the perception of the reconstituted Pac-12,” he writes. “During an era in which conference strength is based on the value of its brands, the Pac-12 landed the biggest basketball brand available during its current expansion phase.”
Or this from CBS Sports’ Gary Parrish.
“Gonzaga is leaving the WCC and moving to the Pac-12, as Brett McMurphy reported last week. Huge get for the remade conference. The Pac-12 will now have two programs — Gonzaga/San Diego State — that have played in two of the past four title games of the NCAA Tournament.”
Others were less enthusiastic though. Not because Gonzaga isn’t a powerhouse basketball school, but more so because they remain of the belief that the Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences should have merged, rather than come into competition with each other.
“You know, if the Mountain West and Pac-12 had just merged, given themselves a new name, and added Gonzaga in basketball, that would’ve been a pretty strong league,” wrote CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli.
Gonzaga reportedly made the move to the Pac-12 because of a promise that the conference would prioritize basketball.
A source told Matt Norlander, “Gonzaga made the leap because the Pac-12 made an impassioned pitch for being all-in on basketball and it’s vision to build contemporary league that’s forward-thinking ‘and ready for the future’ was ultimately appealing enough to get them to walk from the WCC.”
And realistically, Gonzaga joining the Pac-12 helps position the conference among the elite in the sport.
From a college basketball perspective, the Pac-12 is now home to six teams that were ranked in the top 45 in the NET rankings last March. Gonzaga and San Diego State have both made it to the Final Four recently. And according to multiple reports, the Pac-12 has engaged with both Saint Mary’s and Grand Canyon University about possible membership as well.
It isn’t crazy to suggest that the Pac-12 — whatever it looks like at the end of its expansion era — could find itself being a top three basketball conference come 2026.
Maybe not better than the Big 12 or the Big East, but on par or better than the ACC, Big Ten or SEC.
Basketball is, of course, secondary to football when it comes to college athletics. In terms of viewership, money generated, money spent — pretty much everything. And the Pac-12 still needs to add a full-time member school that sponsors football by 2026 in order to remain a FBS conference.
Gonzaga doesn’t help with that, given the Bulldogs haven’t had a football team since 1941. Or do they?
There is an argument to be made that Gonzaga joining the Pac-12 adds to the prestige of the conference on the whole, making the league more attractive to possible other members who sponsor football.
Attractive enough for potential additions like Memphis, Tulane or USF to reconsider their commitment to the American Athletic Conference. Or UNLV to the Mountain West. Or maybe, just maybe Cal and Stanford to the ACC.
According to Forbes, the only real potential additions from the non-Power ranks that would be especially valuable for the Pac-12 to add are Memphis, Tulane, UTSA, USF and Louisiana. Could the addition of Gonzaga be enough to bring those schools west?
Count Wilner as a believer.
“The Zags instantly make the conference more attractive to potential media partners and to other schools — those that play both football and basketball, and those that don’t,” Wilner writes.
A source told Wilner to keep an eye out for UConn as well, noting, “An arrangement with Connecticut to become a football-playing member that schedules basketball games for its powerhouse teams each year in Pac-12 arenas.”
Canzano believes that the Pac-12 being judicious with who it added, rather than going after perceived lesser schools like UTEP (the newest addition to the Mountain West) to get to eight football-sponsoring members as quickly as possible, could lure bigger fish to the conference in the not so distant future.
“The Pac-12 has demonstrated it’s not interested in adding ‘just any school’ to grow the conference — it’s being hyper-selective,” Canzano writes. “… The Pac-12 still needs one more football (and all-sports) member to reach the NCAA minimum of eight schools. It has 21 months. But the conference wants to get to market and sell its media rights, so I don’t expect the next move to take very long. Getting Gonzaga is a win for the conference. The university has an iconic basketball program and favorable geography. Beating out the Big 12 and Big East for the Zags is a nice public victory for a conference that needed one, no way around that.”
That last bit is perhaps the most important part of the Pac-12 landing Gonzaga. Yes, the Bulldogs make the league’s basketball compelling. And yes, theoretically the arrival of Gonzaga raises the prestige level of the Pac-12. Enough potentially to get conversations with schools that wouldn’t have happened before.
Mostly, though, people are talking about the Pac-12 in a positive way again, which can only help when it comes to further league expansion. And further expansion is coming. It has to.
