PAC 12 Expansion
Wonder why the PAC 12 considers Texas as the western-most expansion border instead of Louisiana or at least West of the Miss River. This move seems to be proving to be a great move for Texas State with increased private funding and enrollment due to a greatly improved perception. I still submit Texas State needs a
travel partner and UL could fit that need.
Murray's Mailbag: What is the next step in expansion for the Pac-12 and Mountain West?
by Chris Murray
Mon, April 20, 2026 at 3:59 PM
The Pac-12 (left) and Mountain West (right) could be in the market for league expansion. (Handout)
- TOPICS:
- PAC-12
- MOUNTAIN WEST
- NEVADA ATHLETICS
- EXPANSION
- TRANSFER PORTAL
- COLLEGE BASKETBALL
- MEDIA RIGHTS
- MOUNTAIN WEST TOURNAMENT
Nevada athletics placed the final major beam on its indoor Fieldhouse this afternoon, with athletic director Stephanie Rempe calling it "a beacon of hope" as the $28 million facility reached its halfway point. I'm not sure there are any beacons of hope included in this week's Monday Mailbag, but I offer the weekly column nonetheless (and I'd probably prefer "bacon of hope" anyway). Thanks, as always, for the questions.
The Pac-12 must expand while the Mountain West would like to expand at some point to some strength in numbers, but neither has a smooth pathway toward expansion because there aren't obvious candidates who are additive to a media-rights deal. If you set the eastern border of Texas as your delineation point, there are 45 FBS schools. Of those 45, the only schools not in the Pac-12, the Mountain West or a Power 4 conference are Sacramento State (MAC, football only), New Mexico State (Conference USA), UTSA (American Conference), Tulsa (American), Rice (American), North Texas (American) and Sam Houston (C-USA). The Pac-12 already took a run at the American schools and was denied, so we can rule out UTSA, Rice, Tulsa and North Texas for expansion consideration in the short term. That leaves Sacramento State, New Mexico State and Sam Houston. Sac State has already been turned down by the Pac-12 and MW. New Mexico State was one of two schools left in the cold when the old WAC disbanded, the other being Idaho, which is now an FCS school.
That leaves Sam Houston, which was an FCS school in 2022. So, there are no good FBS expansion candidates in the Western 60 percent of the United States. That's why the Pac-12 was stuck adding Texas State, which it didn't envision taking on when it first poached the MW of San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State and Fresno State. The Pac-12 needs a ninth football member, which, at this point, has a best option of Sam Houston. Ideally, the Pac-12 would like to see Cal and Stanford back out of the Atlantic Coast Conference and return to the Pac-12. That's not happening. Its next-best option is having UNLV, Air Force or New Mexico back out of MW. But the MW grant of media rights/exit fees makes that unlikely. That means there aren't any slam-dunk expansion candidates available, as MW commissioner Gloria Nevarez noted last week.
"North Dakota State was a very strategic add in football because they fit with us, look a lot like us and make us immediately stronger in football," Nevarez told Big Business on Campus. "We're at 10 in football now. Twelve still seems to be a target, although we're not actively on the market right now. Kind of keeping our eyes on the horizon. The Western region has far fewer FBS institutions compared to the East Coast. There just aren't a lot of places to go out here, and we're an airport league. We do have Hawaii on the one side and Northern Illinois in football on the other. As long as the other conferences stay where they are, I think somewhere between 10 to 12 could be a sweet spot."
The MW is in better shape than the Pac-12 for expansion because it can add an FCS school like North Dakota State and not feel like it is watering down its "brand." The Pac-12 has more of a brand to protect at this point, which has kept it from getting to nine football schools. I would not be shocked to see the MW add the Montana schools down the line, or perhaps a Sam Houston or New Mexico State. The Pac-12, I imagine, believes it is above adding those schools. But there aren't any other options past the destabilization of the ACC or MW. That has forced the Pac-12 to add a bunch of affiliate members, which could be its path forward, which would mean adding a football-only school to round out the conference. As is, the Pac-12 is adding 11 affiliate members in 2026 in sports that range from baseball to soccer to wrestling to gymnastics. The Pac-12 will have a total of 14 affiliates next year; the MW will have four. I hate these affiliates, by the way. They create Frankenstein conferences.
The Pac-12 starts on better footing than the MW in 2026 because it has the more successful schools right now. But the MW, if it can collect $100 million-plus in exit fees/poaching penalties from the Pac-12 and its member schools, could play catch up on the Pac-12. Ultimately, a reverse merger with Oregon State and Washington State — or picking nine schools and dissolving the MW — made more sense than what we've seen. But the way things played out adds a nice West Coast rivalry between the conferences. We'll see how much the MW can close the gap between itself and the Pac-12 over the next five years, which is the length of the Pac-12's media-rights deal.
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Originally Posted by Duckster
