The Second Life of the Pac-12
How a “Startup” Power Is Taking Shape
A year ago, the Pac-12 looked finished.
USC, UCLA and the rest of the traditional West Coast powers had scattered to the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, leaving Washington State and Oregon State alone, fighting in court and scrambling for games.
Today, the picture is very different. The “new” Pac-12 has a launch date, a membership list, media partners and a clear vision that looks less like a dying brand and more like a startup trying to punch its way back into college football’s top tier.
Commissioner Teresa Gould has described it bluntly: beginning July 1, 2026, the Pac-12 will not be a restored version of the old league—it will be a new conference built from scratch on a century-old foundation.
From Collapse to “Startup Mode”
The turning point came when Washington State and Oregon State chose not to drop into the Mountain West or accept permanent “orphan” status, but instead to rebuild the Pac-12 themselves.
Over the last year, they’ve assembled a new membership core and mapped out a two-stage timeline:
2024–25 and 2025–26: Pac-12 operates as a two-team league under the NCAA’s grace period while WSU and OSU function as quasi-independents in football, playing 10 non-conference games plus a home-and-home with each other.
2026–27 onward: Full relaunch of the conference with nine all-sports members and eight FBS football programs.
The goal isn’t nostalgia; it’s survival and relevance in the post–“Power Five” landscape.
Who’s in the New Pac-12?
By mid-2025, the membership picture finally crystallized. The rebuilt Pac-12 will have nine full members when it officially relaunches for the 2026–27 season:
Legacy members
Oregon State
Washington State
Former Mountain West members
Boise State
Colorado State
Fresno State
San Diego State
Utah State
From the West Coast Conference (non-football)
Gonzaga
From the Sun Belt
Texas State
According to the Pac-12’s own announcement, Texas State’s move makes it the ninth full-time member and, crucially, the eighth football-playing program, giving the league the minimum number of FBS football members it needs to retain FBS status.
Gonzaga joins as a full member in other sports (most notably men’s basketball) but does not sponsor FBS football, which is why that “eighth football school” number matters so much.
A Season in Limbo and a Courtroom Battle
Before that 2026 relaunch, the conference has to survive one more awkward transition year.
In 2025, Washington State and Oregon State will again function as “independent in practice” football programs. They remain Pac-12 members administratively, but their schedules are built largely outside the conference, aside from a two-game series against each other.
Behind the scenes, the Pac-12 office still handles:
football officiating and replay oversight
certain championship events
governance and planning for the relaunch
At the same time, the Pac-12 is locked in a high-stakes legal battle with the Mountain West over a 2023–24 football scheduling agreement for the 2024 season and a so-called “poaching fee” tied to five Mountain West schools leaving for the Pac-12 (Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State). In a federal antitrust lawsuit, the Pac-12 is challenging roughly $55 million in penalties the Mountain West says it is owed under that agreement. A federal judge held a key hearing in September 2025 and, on September 30, denied the Mountain West’s motion to dismiss, allowing the Pac-12’s lawsuit to move forward; the case remains active and unresolved. Separate litigation by Colorado State and Utah State in Colorado state court challenges the size and structure of the Mountain West’s exit fees and alleged withholding of conference distributions.
Whatever the outcome, that litigation will shape how much money both conferences have to work with during the critical first years of the new Pac-12.
Is the New Pac-12 Still a “Power” Conference?
Officially, the answer is no—at least not in the way we used to define “Power Five.”
The Pac-12 no longer holds NCAA autonomy status and isn’t part of the current “Power 4” governance structure that includes the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, and ACC. That means it doesn’t automatically share in the same revenue streams or rule-making power those leagues enjoy.
But competitively, the league is making a case that it belongs right behind those four:
In a detailed June 2025 release, the conference highlighted that, using future-membership lineups over the past four seasons, its eight football programs collectively posted the fourth-best winning percentage among FBS conferences, had five of eight programs appear in the College Football Playoff rankings, and produced Boise State as the No. 3 seed in the first 12-team CFP.
In men’s basketball, the same release noted that the future Pac-12 lineup had the fifth-best average NET ranking over five seasons and sent seven of nine programs to the NCAA tournament, including two national title game appearances.
A column in The Daily Evergreen (Washington State’s student paper) argues that, based on recent results, the rebuilt Pac-12 “can hold its own” with the Big 12 and ACC and effectively restores a “Power 5” tier—although that label is opinion, not an official NCAA designation.
The conference itself has leaned into a branding phrase: “Top 5 league”—essentially staking a claim as the clear No. 5 behind the current Power 4.
Media Deals and the Hidden Asset: Pac-12 Enterprises
If there’s one piece that really differentiates the new Pac-12 from other “Group of 5” leagues, it’s the media and production infrastructure it still controls.
The old Pac-12 Network is gone, but its production arm—Pac-12 Enterprises—survived. Now based in San Ramon, California, the facility can produce thousands of events per year and has already handled content that has nothing to do with the old conference:
a Golden State Warriors preseason game
Professional Fighters League events
non-Pac-12 college football games carried by The CW
That internal production muscle underpins a cluster of long-term media deals:
CBS Sports as the primary partner for football and men’s basketball through the 2030-31 season, with games on CBS and CBS Sports Network.
An extended partnership with The CW, which will air 13 football games and a large slate of men’s and women’s basketball each year through 2030-31.
A newer deal with USA Sports, a new NBC/Comcast-linked entity, that will carry 22 football games plus significant basketball inventory annually, also running through 2030-31.
All of those broadcasts will be produced by Pac-12 Enterprises, effectively turning the conference into both a league and a content studio.
For a rebuilt conference that can’t match the Big Ten or SEC dollar-for-dollar, controlling production and carving out multiple TV partners is a strategic way to generate revenue, showcase its new members and sell recruits, fans and donors on the idea that this isn’t just another mid-major league.
What It All Means Going Forward
The new Pac-12 will not look or feel like the conference that once hosted the Rose Bowl race.
Instead, it’s a hybrid:
football brand built on rising programs like Boise State, San Diego State, Texas State and Utah State
basketball power boosted by Gonzaga’s national profile
legacy anchor schools Washington State and Oregon State trying to turn a near-death experience into long-term stability
It has:
nine committed members
eight FBS football programs
long-term TV deals with multiple national partners
a media production company capable of generating content far beyond its own games
What it doesn’t have—yet—is the official political clout and guaranteed revenue stream of the current Power 4. That part has to be earned on the field, on the court and at the negotiating table over the rest of this decade.
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