Canzano: Pac-12 expanding to six members
WSan Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Boise State.
The Pac-12 Conference will announce an expansion plan that includes the addition of four Mountain West schools on Thursday, sources tell JohnCanzano.com.
Oregon State and Washington State will formally admit San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, and Colorado State to the Pac-12. An announcement is expected at 6 a.m. PT on Thursday, per a conference source.
The four schools will join the league for the 2026 school year. The Pac-12 would still need to add two more schools to get to the NCAA minimum of eight members.
What does it mean?
The Pac-12’s two holdover members — Oregon State and Washington State — were serious when they said they valued the conference’s brand. The Beavers and Cougars refused to go away, sued for all the assets, established creative contingency plans, and held onto the 108-year-old conference with both hands.
Court hearings.
The unknown.
Months of handwringing and angst.
OSU and WSU emerged from that with a plan they’re now executing. That the Pac-12 is announcing the expansion during rivalry week, 48 hours before they kick off football games against defectors Oregon and Washington, is poetic.
The Beavers and Cougars have been fighting for survival and plotting, and are now poised to reconstitute the Pac-12, beginning with the addition of four new schools.
San Diego State gets the Pac-12’s toes back into the Southern California TV market. Fresno State has a footprint in California’s Central Valley. Colorado State helps capture Denver, and Boise State adds an established football brand.
I like the mix, particularly when you consider the potential for the conference champion to get strong consideration for the College Football Playoff. Under the CFP guidelines, the champion of a rebuilt eight-member Pac-12 would be eligible for an automatic playoff bid in 2026.
As I spoke with involved Pac-12 sources late on Wednesday evening the word “likeminded” came up multiple times when I asked about the four new schools. The six members share a vision, want to invest and be players in major college athletics, and offer strength in the one sport that counts — football.
“There will be two bites of the apple,” a Pac-12 source told me last month.
The addition of four Mountain West schools in 2026, along with a well-designed scheduling plan for 2025, feels like a solid first bite. But the Pac-12 is going to need to add two more schools before the NCAA’s July 1, 2026 deadline.
I’m told it’s unlikely that the Pac-12 would request a waiver that buys it some additional time. What about Stanford and Cal? Ready to come home? We’ll see, but even if they were, I doubt they’d currently be able to easily get out of the ACC.
What did OSU athletic director Scott Barnes say last week?
He said: “Chaos is our friend.”
A source in the media space told me on Wednesday night: “A somewhat informed person might think that they might be keeping a couple of seats warm for Stanford and Cal should mayhem occur in the ACC.”
It’s also possible the Pac-12 could hold a beauty contest involving schools from the American Athletic Conference (i.e. Memphis, University of Texas at San Antonio, Tulane, and others).
So what happens next?
A victory lap by the Pac-12 early on Thursday morning. Maybe some inspired words from Commissioner Teresa Gould. Then, two rivalry football games will be played on Saturday amid speculation about where the Pac-12 will find two additional members that fit the conference’s new-world vision.
After that, the reborn conference will need to eventually secure a media-rights deal that glues it together. The CW and FOX currently have a one-year contract with the Pac-12 for the 2024 football season. CW Network President Dennis Miller told me that he’s interested in additional growth and inventory.
“Could the media partner be The CW? Could it be someone else? That’s to be determined,” said a conference source on Wednesday night. “We still need to figure out 2025.”
Gould told me on her first day on the job as Pac-12 commissioner that the conference had set aside $65 million in settlement money for a potential rebuild. Each of the Mountain West schools will pay an exit fee of $17 million, and the Pac-12 is on the hook for a total of $43 million in “poaching penalties.”
I spoke with Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez on Saturday in San Diego. She was aware that the Pac-12 was in recent contact with several of her members and sounded concerned. There was a growing disconnect between the Mountain West and Pac-12 that culminated when the sides recently walked away from a mutual option to continue their football scheduling plan in 2025.
When I mentioned to Nevarez that Gould had that $65 million set aside, she said: “That’s enough for six of our schools.”
Turns out the Pac-12 only wanted four.
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I’m glad to see movement in this - things are looking up.
I hate we are destroying another conference. I wish they would have gone with a relegation model with the MW. Brutal. That's college sports now I guess.