Mountain West Schools Poised to Revitalize a Shattered Pac-12

The Pac-12 isn’t officially back yet, but it’s almost on its feet.

Four Mountain West schools—Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, and Fresno State—are expected to join the Pac-12, which was left with just two members this year following the departure of 10 schools. 

“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,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said in a statement. “An exciting new era for the Pac-12 Conference begins today.”

Read more about the news from Front Office Sports reporter Amanda Christovich. 

How we got here: In June 2022, UCLA and USC announced they would be leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten in 2024. But the rest of the schools stayed put until last year when the Pac-12 failed to secure a media-rights deal.

Then-Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff attempted to negotiate a new media deal following the departure of the two Southern California schools, but the Big 12 cut the conference off by securing an extension of its rights deal with ESPN and Fox in October 2022.

The conference was still confident it could secure a media deal, but in July 2023, there was still no agreement. The uncertainty was too much to bear for many of the schools, and, at the end of the month, Colorado announced it would leave for the Big 12.

That’s when the remaining dominoes started to fall.

Oregon and Washington announced a move to the Big Ten, then just hours later, Arizona, Utah, and Arizona State announced they were headed to the Big 12. On Sept 1, Stanford and Cal announced their move to the ACC. 

Just over a year after USC and UCLA announced their departure, the Pac-12 was left with just two schools for 2024: Oregon State and Washington State.

While it seemed inevitable the two schools would find new homes, they fought to keep the conference alive. They signed a scheduling partnership with the Mountain West, then settled an eight-figure lawsuit with the 10 departing schools that forfeited a portion of their conference revenue distributions for the 2023–2024 season.

In March, Kliavkoff was replaced by Gould, who secured a media-rights deal in May for the conference’s two remaining schools with The CW and Fox Sports. But there are still some pillars for Gould to reconstruct.

What’s next: To maintain its FBS status, the Pac-12 still needs two more schools to join over the next two years. The conference could eye the disgruntled schools in the ACC, particularly FSU and Clemson, both of which are embroiled in a lawsuit with their conference.

The rest of the ACC schools, including Stanford and Cal, have signed on to the conference’s Grant of Rights, meaning they are tied to the university unless they follow Florida State and Clemson and take the conference to court, according to Christovich.

There may be several hoops to jump over for the Pac-12 to get its final two schools, but Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes believes the overarching theme of uncertainty surrounding college realignment bodes well for the conference’s chances at a revival.

“Chaos is our friend because, ultimately, it can give more optionality than what we’re thinking about,” Barnes said on Canzano and Wilner: The Podcast last week.