Seven new full-time member institutions officially joined the Pac-12 Conference on Wednesday, joining the only two schools remaining from the league's "Conference of Champions" days.
Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State, Texas State and Utah State, as well as Pac-12 holdouts Oregon State and Washington State, comprise the nine full-time members of the revitalized Pac-12, set to compete in its first season with the 2026-27 campaign, the conference announced Wednesday.
Oregon State and Washington State have been widely credited for their roles in helping resuscitate a brand left for dead following the 2024 defections to the Big Ten Conference of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington, while at the same time Cal and Stanford left for the Atlantic Coast Conference and Arizona, Arizona State and Colorado aligned with the Big 12.
The revitalized Pac-12 on Wednesday also officially welcomed 12 new affiliate members across five Olympic sports, including baseball (Dallas Baptist), men’s soccer (Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, UC Riverside, UC San Diego), women’s gymnastics (Southern Utah), women’s swimming (Cal Baptist) and wrestling (Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, South Dakota State).
The new era of the Pac-12 will see sponsorship of 10 women's sports and nine men's sports, providing championship competition across the fall, winter and spring seasons in 18 of those 19 sports, including the first-ever championship events for men’s and women’s soccer and women’s volleyball in the league’s 110-year history, the announcement stated.
Per the announcement, "Over the last five seasons since 2021 — the beginning of the NIL/Transfer Portal era — and considering conference compositions beginning with the 2026 season, the new Pac-12 has stacked up competitively as a Top 5 league in a tier of its own across a number of notable data points in both football and men’s basketball, as well as other sports."
