After 10 teams left the Pac-12 Conference last season and joined the Big 10, Big 12, and ACC, two teams were left behind: Washington State and Oregon State, who are now playing a Mountain West schedule in football and a West Coast Conference schedule in basketball.
However, recent developments have lead to additions to the Pac-12, additions that could help restore it to a full conference once again. Recently, they’ve added Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Utah State, and Fresno State for 2026, with interest from other teams coming as well.
After people assumed that the conference was likely going to be a relic of the past, commissioner Teresa Gould has helped to expand, though it won’t have the same mystique it had when it hosted teams such as USC, UCLA, and the classic teams associated with Pac-12 sports. It will still survive as a grouping of teams that mostly exist on the West Coast (for now).
There were also some teams that rejected the new Pac-12, including Memphis, Tulane, South Florida, and UT-San Antonio, who all opted to stay in the American Athletic Conference. UNLV and Air Force also rejected the Pac-12, coming as a blow to a conference that was expecting to land some of these teams and bolster their reputation.
Unfortunately, the current additions will not make them an automatic qualifier in the College Football Playoff (yet) nor will it guarantee multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament.
While it’s important to expand, the old Pac-12 as it existed before is vestigial, and could never return to its former status as a power conference. Still, it’s better to have a home and play teams that are closer geographically for these programs. It would have helped to have landed some of the AAC teams that reaffirmed their commitment to their confernce Monday, but the search to add more teams is still on for Teresa Gould.
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