The Pac-12 is back and is adding 2 key California schools

Reports of the Pac-12’s death have been greatly exaggerated.

The “Conference of Champions” has been in rough shape since it lost its, well, champions, but the once-prestigious collegiate sports league announced its first steps toward resurrection on Thursday morning.

That resurrection includes the poaching of four school from the Mountain West Conference — two of which are from California. The new members of the Pac-12, effective July 1, 2026, are San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State and Colorado State.

The additions come to the conference as full members, which includes football, mens and womens basketball, baseball and softball, among other sports.

“For over a century, the Pac-12 Conference has been recognized as a leading brand in intercollegiate athletics,” Commissioner Teresa Gould stated . “We will continue to pursue bold cutting-edge opportunities for growth and progress, to best serve our member institutions and student-athletes. 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.  An exciting new era for the Pac-12 Conference begins today.”

The new schools will join incumbents Oregon State and Washington State. Those two were the lone remaining school left in the Pac-12 after 10 other schools officially departed this year.

The Pac-12’s dramatic makeover comes after USC and UCLA kicked off the latest conference re-alignment with the shocking announcement that the Los Angeles tandem was departing for the Big Ten Conference. Oregon and Washington later joined the pair in the conference that traditionally contains schools from the midwest, like Michigan and Ohio State.

After the Pac-12’s prestige took a damaging blow with the departure of those four schools, more followed. Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado jumped ship to the Big 12 soon after, and the Stanford and UC Berkeley crossed the country over to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

That left just Washington State and Oregon State in the Pac-12 . Many speculated about the ability of those two schools to survive in the current collegiate athletics landscape, as they were located in by-far the smallest media markets in the Pac-12, and they weren’t desired by the Big 10 or Big 12.

Washington State and Oregon State then entered a two-year scheduling agreement with the Mountain West, for most sports. But now, the Pac-12 is taking a massive chunk of the smaller conference.

The Pac-12 isn’t done yet. As said in the conference’s statement Thursday, the Pac-12’s six members will now seek additional members.

Potential additions include more Mountain West schools, like the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Utah State, or some from the American Athletic Conference like Memphis and Tulane.

The NCAA requires conference have eight teams to be eligible for championships.

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