On Tuesday evening, the Pac-12 announced it will add Utah State in 2026. It’s the fifth current Mountain West Conference member to commit to joining the Pac-12 in 2026, following Boise State, SDSU, Colorado State, and Fresno State.
The announcement came a few hours after the move was confirmed in court documents related to a new lawsuit the Pac-12 has filed against the Mountain West.
The Pac-12 now only needs one more FBS-playing member to meet the NCAA’s eight-school minimum, as well as that of the College Football Playoff.
Realignment negotiations for the now-rivals of the Pac-12 and Mountain West heated up Monday, when four AAC schools announced they will stay put. Throughout the day Monday, Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez was working to get existing members to sign a written commitment to stay in the conference, which included financial incentives, a source confirmed to Front Office Sports. At least four schools signed before news trickled out that Utah State didn’t sign the agreement—and now, the status of the written agreement is up in the air.
The next salvo from the Pac-12 came Tuesday in the form of a lawsuit against the Mountain West over a portion of a football scheduling agreement between the two conferences that allows Oregon State and Washington State to be slotted into Mountain West conference play. The agreement includes a stipulation requiring that the Pac-12 pay tens of millions in damage fees if it poaches Mountain West programs.
Now that the conference has taken five Mountain West members, it owes $55 million, according to a copy of the agreement previously obtained by FOS. (The Mountain West would also receive around $17 million per school in exit fees.)
The Pac-12 argued that the damage fees were a violation of antitrust law, and characterized them as “draconian.”
The Mountain West defended the agreement in a statement, saying: “The Pac-12 has taken advantage of our willingness to help them and enter into a scheduling agreement with full acknowledgment and legal understanding of their obligations. Now that they have carried out their plan to recruit certain Mountain West schools, they want to walk back what they legally agreed to. There has to be a consequence to these types of actions.”
Going forward, the Pac-12 still needs one more full FBS member—and is likely to get one. While the lawsuit winds through the court system, the Pac-12 will seek to continue its negotiations with potential new members. The aforementioned source told FOS the possible linchpins are UNLV and Air Force.
It could then look to add FCS or non-football playing-schools schools interested in jumping to the next level. The conference may also continue conversations with Gonzaga, which has not received a formal offer to join the conference but has been in discussions with the Pac-12 as a basketball member, another source told FOS. The Zags do not have a varsity football team.
The Mountain West, meanwhile, needs one more FBS-playing member to keep itself together. The conference has received interest from several schools in both the FBS and FCS classifications, the first source said. It probably also needs to prevail in litigation, so that it receives the financial penalties that are being offered.
