Canzano: Pac-12 invites Texas State to join

SOURCE: Bobcats will get a reduced distribution.

The Pac-12 Conference has extended an invitation to Texas State to join as a member in 2026, a source told me late Thursday night. Texas State’s board is expected to meet on Monday and approve the move from the Sun Belt Conference to the new-look Pac-12, the source confirmed.

Full bowl of soup?

Or a half bowl?

Negotiations late last week point to the Bobcats receiving a reduced media-rights distribution in the early years of Pac-12 membership and scaling up toward 2031, a second source told me.

Texas State President Kelly Damphousse posted a soup-related social media post in April, where he insisted that a half bowl wouldn’t suffice.

“For me,” he wrote, “it’s a full bowl or nothing.”

I reached Damphousse on the telephone the following day. He downplayed the notion that he was using soup as a metaphor for potential media rights distributions from the Pac-12. But it sure looked like he was doing some wise (and fun) public negotiating.

Texas State’s president told me at the time, “I’m a huge lobster bisque fan. If it’s on the menu, I’m getting it.”

Pac-12 has Texas State on the menu for its next expansion bite. The move gives the conference nine overall members, and eight that play football.

Monday’s timing makes sense. Texas State’s exit fee from the Sun Belt jumps from $5 million to $10 million on July 1. The Pac-12 announced CBS as its cornerstone media-rights partner earlier this week. The league is positioned to make news again at the beginning of next week.

The Pac-12 needs to add a member before July 1, 2026. Texas State is looking to improve its trajectory as the sands shift in college athletics. In that, this marriage works well for both sides.

I’ve wondered for a while what kind of media-rights distribution the Bobcats will receive in the first year. When I reported several weeks ago that Texas State was the Pac-12’s likely expansion addition, it was greeted with mixed enthusiasm from some corners of college athletics.

Texas State, however, offers the best bottom line and has positioned itself as an ambitious and motivated candidate that isn’t deterred by risk. Also, the Pac-12 needs at least one more member, and I’m told the conference presidents liked the idea that Texas State might join at a reduced share.

It was Mark Twain who we’re told once said, “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.”

If you’re facing a difficult task, at some point you’ve got to wake up and get busy tackling it. Oregon State and Washington State have endured a painstaking rebuild of the league. They went to court and claimed a $255 million settlement victory against the departing members, then pieced together a couple of tricky football seasons playing as a two-member conference, and fought for a two-year grace period from the NCAA.

They were alienated and marginalized by the establishment. Leaders in other conferences hoped the Pac-12 would fold up and go away, or accept their fate and merge with the Mountain West.

OSU and WSU refused to quit. They salvaged the conference’s brand, fought for intellectual property, and reconstituted it using Gonzaga and the five top schools from the MW. On Monday, they’re prepared to add another member.

How many frogs did the Pac-12 eat in the last two years?

Texas State is the latest one, and the addition closes a loop. The membership addition officially legitimizes the Pac-12 as a conference in the eyes of the NCAA.

The Bobcats don’t have a lot of proof of performance in football. They also operate in the shadow of a handful of schools with much bigger brands (i.e., Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, etc.) in their home state. But they’re spirited, ambitious, and growth-focused.

• Texas State had an enrollment of more than 40,000 students last year.

• The Bobcats posted back-to-back 8-5 football seasons, and season tickets doubled from 2023 to 2024.

• Texas State has more than 230,000 alumni, with high concentrations based in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston.

They’re led by a campus president who swaggers around making big plans, pushing for R1 research status, and tweeting about soup.

The San Marcos River, a spring-fed river, runs through campus. It’s a party school, too. A campus insider told me last week that previous Texas State administrators treated the festive reputation like a scarlet letter. But Damphousse (pronounced like “Memphis”) has embraced the fun-loving atmosphere while simultaneously beefing up the school’s PhD programs.

The Pac-12’s pursuit of UNLV didn’t materialize. Memphis and Tulane didn’t pencil out from an all-sports perspective, given the costs. There may be a football-only addition out there for the Pac-12. Also, there are still some interesting basketball possibilities (Read: Saint Mary’s).

The Pac-12 has formally offered membership to Texas State. It is expected to be approved on Monday. That’s the news. While we wait, the campus insider told me the rest of the Pac-12 is going to love Texas State.

“It’s scrappy, blue-collar, and in a location full of great vibes nestled in the Texas hill country,” the insider said.

The school has the same pride that all Texans have. But it’s a place with a notable chip on its shoulder, given the shadow cast by the University of Texas and Texas A&M. The other new-look Pac-12 schools probably found that relatable.

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