Reports: San Diego State, 3 other Mountain West schools set to join Pac-12

The Pac-12 is ready to begin its rebuild.

The Conference of Champions is targeting San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State and Colorado State, with those four schools set to announce as early as Thursday that they plan to depart the Mountain West Conference to join the Pac-12, according to multiple reports on Wednesday night. The four schools have reportedly applied for Pac-12 membership to begin in the 2026-27 academic year.

The four MWC schools would join Oregon State and Washington State, the conference’s two remaining school following its collapse last summer. Commissioner Teresa Gould and officials from the Pac-12 have spent the past year examining possible options for their future after 10 schools, including USC and UCLA, left the league for the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC.

Leaders at Oregon State and Washington State have insisted since the Pac-12 collapsed that their priority was to rebuild. Those efforts are poised to start about a week after the two schools failed to renew for 2025 a football scheduling agreement they have in place with the Mountain West this season, a fight that most notably involved financial differences according to reports.

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, Washington State President Kirk Schulz hinted at what could be next for the Cougars and Beavers.

“So I think my philosophy going through all this has always been, let’s look for what’s the best long-term solution for WSU. Let’s look where our budget is and how much can we spend in a sustainable fashion around intercollegiate athletics. And can we put ourselves in a position to win championships, conference championships, where maybe you are in the top half of the league instead of near the bottom of the league in terms of resources,” he told the AP.

Oregon State and Washington State also have a two-year agreement with the West Coast Conference to be affiliate members, which covers men’s and women’s basketball and other Olympic sports.

Mountain West bylaws require departing schools to pay an exit fee of roughly $18 million with two years notice, which is what the four schools expect to pay, ESPN reported. (That number would jump to $36 million with one year’s notice.)

The Pac-12 is expected to be in position to help the schools with those exit fees. OSU and WSU have tens of millions of dollars at their disposal to work with from the two remaining years of the current College Football Playoff agreements and a contract with the Rose Bowl that will also expired after the 2025 football season. Plus, they have revenue accrued by Pac-12 teams in recent years from the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and Pac-12 Network assets.

The conference would also be subjected to an additional $43 million in poaching fees, as outlined in the scheduling agreement between the conferences this year that resulted in both OSU and WSU playing six Mountain West opponents.

Once these four additions are confirmed, the Pac-12 would still need to add two more to reach the NCAA minimum requirement. The conference is in the first of a two-year grace period afforded by NCAA bylaws to exist below the minimum in the case of departures. It must reach the minimum by July of 2026.

The Pac-12’s move could have also affect the College Football Playoff. Given the departures in the Pac-12, CFP leaders last year voted to change the 12-team expanded playoff format. They removed one automatic qualifying spot and added an at-large berth for a format that features five automatic spots for the highest-ranked conference champions and seven at-large bids.

In the next two years, the Pac-12 champion is not eligible for an automatic qualifying spot as it does not meet the CFP’s conference-minimum requirement. However, starting in 2026, the champion of a rebuilt Pac-12 would presumably be eligible to receive an automatic bid.

The Pac-12’s board must approve any membership applications and is expected to soon do so, but the deal could reportedly be finalized by the end of the week.

The Pac-12’s first expansion phase makes geographic sense but deals a blow to the Mountain West. The MWC, a 12-team football league that includes Air Force, UNLV, Nevada, Utah State, New Mexico, Wyoming, San Jose State and Hawaii (a Big West member in all other sports), would lose some of its top brands despite a scheduling alliance with the Pac-12 that many expected would end with a reverse merger or merger with Oregon State and Washington State.

MW Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said in a statement late Wednesday night the conference was aware of media reports and its board of directors was meeting to discuss the next steps.

“All members will be held to conference bylaws and policies should they elect to depart,” she said. ”The requirements of the scheduling agreement will apply to the Pac-12 should they admit Mountain West members.”

This move by the Pac-12 could ignite another round of realignment, at least for those schools at the Group of Five or even FCS level. Needing to fill departures, the Mountain West is likely to evaluate possible members to elevate to FBS.

News of the four schools set to join the Pac-12 was first reported by Yahoo Sports.