The Pac-12 is ready to begin its rebuild and is targeting teams in the same conference as New Mexico: Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State of the Mountain West, with those schools applying for membership as soon as this week, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Wednesday night.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the conference's plans and discussions with possible new members were not being made public.
The Pac-12 is currently a two-school conference, with Oregon State and Washington State the only remaining members after the league was picked apart last year by other power conferences.
NCAA rules allow for a conference to operate with only two schools for two years. Teresa Gould was hired to be the Pac-12 commissioner earlier this year, leading a slimmed down league office.
Leaders at Oregon State and Washington State have insisted since the conference collapsed last year their priority was to rebuild.
Those efforts are poised to start about a week after Oregon State and Washington State failed to renew for 2025 a football scheduling agreement they have in place with the Mountain West this season.
In a recent interview with the AP, Washington State President Kirk Schulz hinted at what could be next for the 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 on 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 to be affiliate members of the West Coast Conference, which covers men's and women's basketball and other Olympic sports.
Any new Pac-12 members would join in 2026, and the conference would have to pay close to $30 million for each school to the Mountain West in exit fees and penalties that were included in the scheduling agreement.
Oregon State and Washington State have tens of millions of dollars at their disposal to work with from the two remaining years of the current College Football Playoff agreements that include the Pac-12, a deal with the Rose Bowl and the conference that will also expired after the 2025 football season and revenue accrued by Pac-12 teams in recent years from the men's NCAA basketball tournament.
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