Utah State accepts offer to join Pac-12

LOGAN, Utah (ABC4) — After over a decade of being part of the Mountain West Conference, Utah State is expected to join a new conference.

ESPN’s college football insider Pete Thamel reported on X, formerly Twitter, that Utah State is expected to join the Pac-12 Conference beginning in 2026 after the conference extended a membership offer to the school. Utah State is expected to accept that offer tonight. Utah State has been a member of the Mountain West since 2013.

This comes after the Pac-12 lost several long-time member schools. The Pac-12 lost four members to the Big Ten, an additional two to the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and three more to the Big 12, leaving just Oregon State and Washington State as the two members of the PAC-12.

The Pac-12 Conference announced last Thursday on its website that it would add Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State to the fold. That only gave the Pac-12 six members for football, Utah State’s full membership would give the conference seven. Eight full-time members are needed per NCAA rules to constitute an FBS conference.

With Utah State being the seventh team, the conference still needs to find one more full-time member school with a football program by 2026. Many of the schools currently partnered with the American Athletic Conference (AAC) declined offers of membership from the Pac-12.

Memphis, Tulane, University of South Florida, and the University of Texas at San Antonio, all of which were targets of the Pac-12, said earlier Monday that they each plan on staying put in the AAC. The Pac-12 also has targeted Mountain West members, UNLV and Air Force, Air Force said they would remain a member of the Mountain West. Pete Thamel says that UNLV has pivoted back to exploring.

Utah State won the Mountain West football championship in 2021. Utah State has reached 11 bowl games since 2011 and has 16 bowl appearances in its history.

Utah State also is an accomplished basketball school, as it has 24 men’s NCAA tournament appearances in its history. That includes appearances in four of the past five tournaments. (Those four took place over six years, and the Aggies were 26-8 in 2020 when the pandemic canceled the tournament.)

Connor Comeau and Dana Greene contributed to reporting .

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