The Pac-12 is back! Sort of. Shock waves were sent throughout college athletics when the Pac-12 announced the capture of four leading Mountain West institutions as they look to rebuild from the ruins that conference realignment left the league.
Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State are on their way to the Pac-12 beginning in the 2026-2027 school year.
In the wake of the departures, there are many questions that have emerged. But central to the entire story is this – why would four teams leave their secure, fully formed conference for one that doesn’t even have enough members yet to reach the FBS minimum?
And when it comes to most things having to do with conference realignment, the answer is simple – TV money. Simply put, the Mountain West schools believe they can earn more in a new-look Pac-12 from television networks than they can in their existing setup. In fact, the schools are hoping they could potentially double revenue from $6 million per school to $12 million per year.
Via The Athletic:
The four Mountain West schools on the move see the potential for more revenue, even if it’s not at a Power 4 level. They currently receive around $6 million in television money from the Mountain West’s TV deal with Fox, CBS and TNT, a number that likely would’ve been bumped up a bit in the Mountain West’s next TV deal beginning in 2027. The reformed Pac-12 hasn’t taken its rights to market, but the schools’ hope is to draw more than $10-12 million per member from a new TV deal with fewer mouths to feed (for comparison, the Big 12 and ACC distribute around $30 million per school). The league’s Pac-12 Enterprises production company has also proven to be a revenue-generator, even outside college sports. The possible introduction of performance-based revenue sharing could further reward the new league’s most successful members.
The move also stemmed from the realization that the entire collegiate sports model could be overturned in the next few years, whether through the courts or more conference realignment at the end of the decade. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State wanted to tie themselves to schools that invest more closely to their level, rather than those at the bottom of the Mountain West. The four schools felt this was their last best chance to end up on the right side of whatever the future is.
It’s ironic that the Pac-12’s resurrection could come down to television money when that was the thing that killed off the league in the first place. You can pinpoint the turning point for the Conference of Champions as the Big 12 jumping ahead of the Pac-12 and securing their new rights deal first, thereby pushing the Pac-12 down the television pecking order and ultimately out of existence. From there, the Pac-12 struggled to find a suitor, eventually being left without a dance partner as many of their teams panicked and left for conferences with secure futures, even if it didn’t make any logistical sense institutionally or geographically. (Looking at you, Cal and Stanford in the Atlantic Coast Conference.)
Having learned their lesson, what’s left of the Pac-12 is now being incredibly proactive, trying to expand and market themselves as a solid option to television networks before the next round of rights deals come up for renewal.
Yahoo Sports ran down a list of potential further acquisitions for the Pac-12 including teams from the American Athletic Conference like Tulane and Memphis that would push the league further east as prime targets (because regional conferences are sooooooo 2004) as well as a number of schools in Texas from various Group of Five conferences. There’s also other sports to consider like basketball, where west coast mid-major powers like Gonzaga and St. Mary’s could become attractive options. And the Pac-12 could even come back for the rest of the Mountain West where UNLV should be a lock, but politics with fellow in-state school Nevada complicates things.
Regardless of where it all ends, we know the Pac-12 isn’t done yet. They can’t be if they want to reach the FBS minimum of 8 teams. So whenever they go shopping for more, it’ll lead to another domino effect that will have ripples throughout college sports.
