College basketball’s realignment shakeup is about to hit hard, and the biggest domino is the reborn Pac-12.
For 2026-27, the sport is getting a wave of conference changes that take effect on July 1, and this one feels bigger than the relatively quiet 2025-26 cycle. The Pac-12 is back as a nine-team basketball league after two years away, and its return is already sending shockwaves across Division I.
The new-look league pulled in five former Mountain West programs, added Texas State from the Sun Belt and brought in Gonzaga from the WCC. Those seven schools will join Oregon State and Washington State, the two holdovers from the old Pac-12, to form the reworked conference.
That move triggered a chain reaction. The Mountain West filled its openings with Hawaii and UC Davis from the Big West and UTEP from Conference USA.
The WCC replaced Gonzaga by adding Denver from the Summit League. Meanwhile, the old WAC has become the United Athletic Conference, or UAC, and its lineup looks dramatically different.
The ASUN has also been gutted, dropping from 12 teams to eight. And the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference has changed its name to the Metro Conference.
The Pac-12’s return is the headline here, but the basketball value is what makes it stand out. The league still has work to do if it wants to get back to its old high-major standing, but the shape of the roster for 2026-27 suggests something more immediate: it should be the strongest non-major conference in the country.
San Diego State, Utah State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Boise State arrive from the Mountain West in the middle of a messy split. Add Texas State and Gonzaga to Oregon State and Washington State, and the conference suddenly has real depth.
Barttorvik.com’s projections for 2026-27 back that up, with six of the nine Pac-12 teams inside the top 100 and Gonzaga leading the way at No. 6.
The ASUN, meanwhile, is staring at a much thinner field. Five teams are leaving for the UAC, leaving the league with just eight members.
West Florida is one of them, and the Argonauts are in the middle of a Division II-to-Division I transition. They won the Division II national title in 2018 and 2026, but they won’t be eligible for the NCAA Tournament until 2030.
That means the ASUN’s automatic bid race will come down to just seven eligible teams. As of mid-June, CBS Sports Bracketology had Jacksonville as the projected representative for the league in the NCAA Tournament. If that happens, it would be the school’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 1986.
There are still more changes coming after that. The most notable move for 2027-28 is in the WCC, which is set to keep reshaping itself after Gonzaga’s departure by adding UC Santa Barbara and UC San Diego from the Big West. Fairfield also announced last week that it will leave the Metro Conference for the CAA in 2027-28.
Here’s the full list of schools changing leagues for 2026-27:
Austin Peay from the ASUN to the UAC, Boise State from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, Cal Baptist from the WAC to the Big West, Central Arkansas from the ASUN to the UAC, Colorado State from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, Denver from the Summit League to the WCC, Eastern Kentucky from the ASUN to the UAC, Fresno State from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, Gonzaga from the WCC to the Pac-12, Hawaii from the Big West to the Mountain West, Little Rock from the OVC to the UAC, Louisiana Tech from Conference USA to the Sun Belt, North Alabama from the ASUN to the UAC, Northern Illinois from the MAC to the Horizon, Sacramen State from the Big Sky to the UAC, Saint Francis (PA) from the NEC to Division III, San Diego State from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, Southern Utah from the WAC to the Big Sky, Texas State from the Sun Belt to the Pac-12, UC Davis from the Big West to the Mountain West, Utah State from the Mountain West to the Pac-12, Utah Tech from the WAC to the Big Sky, Utah Valley from the WAC to the Big West, UTEP from Conference USA to the Mountain West, Tennessee Tech from the OVC to the SoCon, West Florida from Division II to the ASUN, and West Georgia from the ASUN to the UAC.
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