What had been a longtime goal for Boise State fans became real on Wednesday, when the Broncos officially moved out of the Mountain West and into the Pac-12.
The conference Boise State is joining looks very different from the old Pac-12, which lost 10 of its 12 members to the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 in 2024. Even so, the rebuilt league should be a clear step up from the Mountain West in overall strength.
This version of the Pac-12 will have eight football programs: Oregon State and Washington State, plus Texas State from the Sun Belt and former Mountain West members Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. Gonzaga also officially joined Wednesday as a non-football member.
Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said the Broncos had already been getting ready for the transition during spring practice.
“Excited for the Pac-12,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said of the move during spring practice. “We’ve kind of been in prep for this for a while.
Now, it’s here. We’ve got our schedule.
The Mountain West was awesome for us. We had some amazing years in the Mountain West.
But excited for what’s next, excited for the Pac-12.”
For Boise State, the move brings more than just a new logo on the schedule. The new conference should raise the level of competition across the board, and that matters in every sport.
The football side tells the story most clearly. Since the Mountain West created its championship game in 2013, Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State have combined to win 12 of the 13 titles, with Boise State alone taking six. In the 2025-26 athletics calendar, Pac-12-bound schools occupied five of the six Mountain West championship-game spots across football, men’s basketball and baseball.
The Pac-12 also adds Texas State, a program on the rise after winning three straight bowl games. With the schools the conference has gathered, it should be the strongest Group of Six league in 2026 and has a real shot to send its champion to the College Football Playoff.
“You’ve got a schedule that if you handle business, you have the report card to go play in the College Football Playoff,” Danielson said.
There’s also a bigger stage waiting. Boise State football will have games on CBS, The CW Network, USA Network and CBS Sports Network, and every home regular-season Pac-12 game will be shown nationally on one of those four outlets.
The financial side should improve, too, even though the exact numbers are still unknown. Boise State is expected to get a much larger media rights payout than it received in the Mountain West.
The Broncos have already carried that momentum into recruiting. Their 2026 signing class ranked No. 51 nationally, which is the highest-rated class in program history.
This season, Boise State will play six games at the newly renovated Albertsons Stadium, including visits from new conference foes Oregon State and Texas State, along with a non-conference matchup against Memphis.
And the timing fits. Boise State is coming off three straight Mountain West titles and enters the Pac-12 with enough momentum to chase a fourth consecutive conference crown and another trip to the CFP under Danielson, which would be the program’s second in three seasons.
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