The Pac-12 is moving forward with a long-discussed plan to rebuild the league with reinforcements from the Mountain West, sources told Yahoo Sports.
The two-team conference, consisting of Washington State University and Oregon State University, will join Boise State University, San Diego State University, Colorado State University, and Fresno State University in the restructured Pac-12. These universities applied for and were approved to join the conference. These universities will join the league in 2026.
The Pac-12 confirmed the addition in a statement Thursday morning.
Commissioner Theresa Gould and Pac-12 officials have spent the past year considering possible future options after 10 schools left the league for the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC. They have long believed they could protect the Pac-12 brand by drawing on its 108-year history, traditions and assets to attract new members and reshape the conference through expansion.
This is expected to be the first step in a multi-phase expansion effort to reach the NCAA’s required minimum of eight schools to qualify as an FBS conference. With the addition of these four schools, the league needs two more to complete the process. The minimum number must be reached by July 2026, when the NCAA’s two-year grace period expires.
The affiliation application is subject to approval by the Pac-12 Board of Governors, and the deal was finalized Thursday.
The expansion won’t come cheap: Each Mountain West school is contractually obligated to pay a $17 million exit fee, and the Pac-12 is also obligated to pay a penalty of $10 million to $12 million for each school it acquires as part of the scheduling agreement it struck with the Mountain West.
After months of considering future options, league officials decided to reimagine the conference with an expansion approach. In negotiations with potential new members, Pac-12 officials and third parties presented a plan that would feature new media rights deals worth more than MWC’s current or future television packages, as well as potential Pac-12-branded sponsorships.
The departure of 10 schools from the conference has offered the two schools attractive assets that could collectively amount to millions of dollars, including the Rose Bowl contract, the College Football Playoff, the NCAA basketball tournament unit and funding from Pac-12 Enterprises (formerly the Pac-12 Network). The league lost its designation as a self-governing/power conference, a designation that gave it expanded voting power within NCAA governance and increased revenue in the CFP distribution model. It is unclear whether the conference will be able to regain such a designation.
At Pac-12 media day in Las Vegas in July, Gould convened a gathering of media members, administrators, coaches and players to celebrate the conference, painting a bright future and hinting at the possibility of a rebuild.
“There’s a lot of interest in having a high-level conference that’s rooted on the West Coast,” she told Yahoo Sports at the time. “There’s a lot of interest in our community and our fan base. A lot of people care deeply about the Pac-12 and the Pac-12 brand. There’s a lot of nostalgia about a potential rebuild.”
The Pac-12’s first expansion phase will deal a blow to its rival Mountain West, given its geographic and cultural importance. The MWC, a 12-team football league that includes Hawaii, will lose some of its top branding despite a scheduling affiliation with the Pac-12 that many expected to end in a reverse merger or merger with OSU and WSU.
But earlier this month, talks between the Pac-12 and Mountain West conferences collapsed over adding a second year to their football scheduling alliance in 2024. The dispute revolved mainly around financial differences, according to a person with knowledge of the negotiations.
The Pac-12’s move could spark another round of realignment, at least for schools at the Group of Five and FCS levels: Needing to replace departures, the Mountain West will likely evaluate members who could move up to the FBS.
The Pac-12’s move could have ripple effects on a bigger stage: the College Football Playoff. In light of the Pac-12’s departure, CFP leaders voted to change the playoff format, which expanded to 12 teams last year. They removed one automatic qualifying spot and added an at-large bid, resulting in a format that features five AQs and seven at-large bids from the highest-ranked conference champions.
For the next two years, the Pac-12 champion won’t be eligible for an automatic berth because it doesn’t meet the CFP’s conference minimum requirements, but starting in 2026, the rebuilt Pac-12 champion will likely be eligible for an automatic berth.