The Pac-12 is back in business, and the new look is set. On July 1, the conference officially relaunched after a turbulent four-year stretch, with Oregon State and Washington State carrying over from the old league and seven new full-time members joining the mix.
Those additions are Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State, Texas State and Utah State. That gives the Pac-12 a fresh full-time lineup for the 2026-2027 academic year, which will be the first season under the rebuilt structure.
The league’s full-time members in 2026-2027 will be Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State and Washington State.
Gonzaga’s place in the group comes with a notable footnote: the Bulldogs have not sponsored varsity football since 1941.
The rebuild doesn’t stop there. The Pac-12 has also brought in 12 affiliate members across five Olympic sports, along with several existing affiliate members already in the fold.
Those affiliate additions are Air Force in wrestling; Arkansas-Little Rock in wrestling; Cal Baptist in men’s soccer and women’s swimming; Cal Poly in wrestling and men’s soccer; Cal State Bakersfield in wrestling; Dallas Baptist in baseball; North Dakota State in wrestling; Northern Colorado in wrestling; Northern Illinois in wrestling; South Dakota State in wrestling; Southern Utah in women’s gymnastics; UC Riverside in men’s soccer; and UC San Diego in men’s soccer.
The conference’s collapse started in 2022, when USC and UCLA announced they would leave for the Big Ten before the 2024-2025 season. Oregon and Washington followed them to the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah moved to the Big 12. Cal and Stanford landed in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Since then, commissioner Teresa Gould and the league office have pushed hard to rebuild, keeping Oregon State and Washington State in place while adding enough members to remain an FBS conference and preserve automatic bids in the men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball Tournaments.
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Oregon State Has An Intriguing New O-Line Question This Summer
Teko Shoats gave Oregon State a spring look at a potentially useful addition up front, even if the evaluation window was limited. The Bethune-Cookman transfer showed the kind of size and physical traits that stand out in individual drills, and his background as a productive FCS lineman gives the Beavers a reason to keep watching closely when the pads come on for real.
Shoats now heads into fall camp with a chance to carve out a role on the offensive line, and the appeal is obvious for Oregon State. He has primarily played tackle, but that experience could give the staff some flexibility as it sorts through the depth chart, and there is at least a path for him to compete for meaningful snaps if he carries his spring momentum into August. [Read more 🡒]
Beavers Fans Are Finally Seeing What Justin Joyner Is Really Like
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For Joyner, the joke is secondary to the larger point: summer is where toughness and identity start to take shape. He has stressed that the work now will help define what Oregon State looks like when the season arrives, and the roster is still in the middle of figuring out how that culture feels day to day. The video may have gotten the laughs, but the bigger question for the Beavers is how quickly that mix of personality and pressure turns into a team that plays the way its new coach wants. [Read more 🡒]