Pac-12 expected to announce additions of four Mountain West schools in newest conference realignment

The Pac-12 Conference will announce the additions of Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Colorado State from the Mountain West at roughly 9 a.m. ET, per On3’s Pete Nakos.

This is the latest step in conference realignment around college athletics and comes after the Pac-12 conference entered the 2024 season with just two schools. The 10 other previous member schools left for either the Big Ten, Big 12, or ACC ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year.

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FBS conferences must have eight teams in them. The Pac-12, with these additions, will be at six schools and needs to add another two programs before the 2026-27 academic year.

The Pac-12 and the Mountain West entered into a two-year scheduling agreement after it became clear the Pac-12 would be down to two member schools for a period of time. In that agreement, every Mountain West school would play either Oregon State or Washington State to help those schools fill in their schedules on short notice.

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The four schools leaving the conference are going to need to pay an approximately $18 million buyout. On top of that, there is a $10-$12 million penalty that each school leaving the Mountain West will be assessed thanks to the scheduling agreement. However, per Kyle Bonagura, the Pac-12 is expected to help assist with those exit fees.

The two conferences had also been in discussions to extend the scheduling agreement, however talks recently broke down.

Conference realignment originally came for the conference after the Big Ten responded to the SEC adding new schools by pulling in USC and UCLA. At that point, then commissioner George Kliavkoff struggled to come up with a media rights deal the members could agree on, presenting a streaming deal from Apple. That’s when schools began looking for new homes elsewhere, leaving Washington State and Oregon State behind.

From here, new commissioner Teresa Gould still has work to do to reestablish the conference. The Pac-12 will need to add at least two more schools to get to eight by the 2026-2027 year. However, this was a good first step for her as she looks to rebuild the conference.