As of July 1, the Pac-12 is officially back. It barely resembles the conference that ruled the West Coast for the better part of a century, instead emerging as a new league born of an unlikely resurrection.Two years ago, the league looked finished. The 12-team conference was reduced to just two schools after a wave of conference realignment sent most of its members elsewhere. Oregon State and Washington State spent two seasons playing out a “Pac-2” existence, scrounging for games at the edges of the Group of Five while the conference’s future sat in legal limbo.
What replaces it is a different kind of league. The recognizable brands that once defined the Pac-12 (and Pac-10 before it) are gone. In their place: a mix of former Mountain West heavyweights and a Sun Belt program looking to test itself at a higher level, all betting that the Pac-12 name still carries enough weight to matter in a reshuffled college football landscape.
How did we get here?
The unraveling began in June 2022, when UCLA and USC declared their move to the Big Ten, triggering a chain reaction of major conference realignment moves. By August 2023, Oregon and Washington had also committed to the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah bolted for the Big 12. California and Stanford, geographically stranded and short on options, found a landing spot clear across the country in the ACC.
By the time the dust settled, a league that began as the Pacific Coast Conference in 1915 and grew into the “Conference of Champions” had exactly two members left standing: Oregon State and Washington State.
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What followed was less a rebuild than a recovery effort. The two remaining schools reached a legal settlement securing control of the conference’s name, logo and remaining assets, as well as leverage nobody expected the “Pac-2” to have. That turned into a recruiting pitch.
Beginning in September 2024, the Pac-12 began rebuilding by pulling top programs from the Mountain West, landing Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State in quick succession. Gonzaga later declared it would join as a non-football member, hoping to restore the conference’s basketball pedigree.
The final piece arrived in June 2025, when Texas State left the Sun Belt to become the conference’s eighth football-playing member — the minimum the NCAA requires for FBS status. It wasn’t a flashy addition, but it was the one that mattered most on paper, locking in the conference’s eligibility and clearing the last real obstacle standing between the Pac-12 and a return to the field.
Two years after nearly disappearing, the Pac-12 has its eight teams and a chance to begin its next chapter in 2026.
What to know about each team this season
Boise State
The Broncos are the most complete team in the new Pac-12. Their 13 returning starters are tied for second-most in the Group of Six, led by quarterback Maddux Madsen, now in his fifth year and third as the starter. Madsen is looking to rebound from a rough junior season — a career-low 58.3% completion rate and a career-worst nine interceptions — that even coach Spencer Danielson called “a little bit too up-and-down” this spring. The Broncos still didn’t bother shopping the portal for competition.
The top four pass-catchers are gone, but Dylan Riley and Sire Gaines, who combined for more than 2,100 yards from scrimmage, anchor the run game.
Six starters return on defense, but only one plays in the secondary: former Notre Dame transfer Jaden Mickey, who Danielson says can “flat out cover.” How fast the rest of that back end comes together will decide whether Boise State’s Pac-12 debut goes as smoothly as expected.
Colorado State
A complete reset was needed in Fort Collins. After a 2-10 season in 2025 — its worst in 37 years — Colorado State fired Jay Norvell and hired Jim Mora, fresh off back-to-back nine-win seasons at UConn. Mora brought plenty of company with him: the Rams’ 35 incoming transfers are more than any other Pac-12 team, and 16 of them followed their coach from Storrs.
Hauss Hejny — a former four-star recruit who’s barely played a snap since high school between a redshirt year at TCU and a foot injury that ended his first Oklahoma State start after one quarter — is locked in a quarterback battle with UConn transfer K’saan Farrar that’s expected to last into fall camp.
Whoever wins it will be working behind a unit that’s almost entirely new and inexperienced. Colorado State ranks 132nd nationally in career FBS snaps among offensive linemen (742).
The defense, by contrast, has some bones: four of the roster’s five players with double-digit career FBS starts play there, led by linebacker Oumar Diomande, who had 116 total tackles for UConn in 2025. Coordinator Tyson Summers was retained despite a defense that ranked 113th in scoring last season.
Fresno State
Matt Entz led Fresno State to its fourth nine-win season in five years in his FBS coaching debut. Both coordinators are back, along with 13 returning starters and 51% of the team’s snaps from a year ago — 25th nationally and ninth in the Group of Six.
Maryland transfer Khristian Martin is the favorite to win the starting job as the Bulldogs look to add a designed quarterback run game to an offense that historically hasn’t had one. Martin attempted just 17 passes and carried the ball four times in limited duty behind the Terrapins’ starter, but his 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame has the staff buzzing.
Much of last year’s defense, which ranked in the top 20 in both points and yards allowed per play, returns intact. Simeon Harris is an All-Pac-12 caliber cornerback who anchors the back end after tying for the Mountain West lead and finishing seventh nationally with five interceptions in 2025.
The Pac-12 schedule should be more difficult than what Fresno State faced a year ago, but don’t sleep on the Bulldogs as a contender in the new-look conference.
Oregon State
The Beavers have been in a steady slide since their 10-win 2022 season, and are now on their third coach since then as former Alabama assistant JaMarcus Shephard takes over in Corvallis. The most pressing question facing him is at quarterback, where a three-way battle looks likely to run deep into August.
Maalik Murphy is the returning starter after a rough 2025. He lost his job in November and finished with just 1,805 yards, nine touchdowns and eight interceptions. Murphy is being pushed by Western Michigan transfer Brady Jones and Mercer transfer Braden Atkinson, who won the Jerry Rice Award as the best freshman in the FCS last season.
If Murphy does win the job back, it would end an Oregon State streak that’s been running for six years. The Beavers haven’t started the same quarterback in Week 1 in back-to-back seasons since Jake Luton did it in 2018 and 2019.
FCS transfers are expected to be relied upon heavily, with as many as six potentially earning starting roles. UT Rio Grande Valley receiver Xayvion Noland and Idaho linebacker Dylan Layne are among those to watch.
San Diego State
After a six-win improvement in Year 2 under Sean Lewis, San Diego State is hoping to carry that momentum into a new conference. Just three starters are back from a defense that ranked fifth nationally in yards per play allowed and sixth in points per game, and the bigger issue is who’s calling the shots.
Coordinator Rob Aurich left for Nebraska, taking several top contributors with him. Demetrius Sumler, promoted from within, inherits a defensive front that’s at least experienced, ranking seventh in the FBS in career snaps (2,949). However, a proven pass rush is missing.
The offense leans on Lucky Sutton, who ranks seventh among active Group of Six backs in career rushing yards (1,497), and quarterback Jayden Denegal, who’s healthy again after playing through an injured non-throwing shoulder for virtually all of 2025. He still started all 12 games before having it surgically repaired in December. Keeping him upright will be important. Three new starters are needed on an offensive line that’s protecting him.
The Aztecs haven’t won a conference title since 2016, when Rocky Long’s team beat Wyoming for back-to-back Mountain West Championships. A decade later, San Diego State gets a fresh shot at one in a brand-new league.
Texas State
While the other seven teams in the new Pac-12 are at least somewhat familiar with one another, Texas State brings an element of the unknown, coming over from the Sun Belt. This will be just the 15th season at the FBS level for the Bobcats, who have finally found stability since coach G.J. Kinne took over in 2023.
The offense has been the engine of that turnaround, averaging 36.6 points per game over the past two seasons — fifth-most among any team in the FBS. Seven starters return on that side of the ball, and Texas State enters the year among the best in the country in returning offensive production. Quarterback Brad Jackson ranked fifth among qualifying quarterbacks nationally in completion rate (71.3%) last season and tied for sixth in yards per attempt (9.2). His top targets are back, too: Beau Sparks and Chris Dawn Jr. both topped 1,000 receiving yards in 2025.
The defense needs a similar jump after finishing 95th nationally in scoring defense and 61st in yards allowed per play. Texas State went looking for answers in the portal, bringing in 18 transfers, 11 of them on defense, and hired Will Windham away from South Alabama to be its new coordinator. He inherits a unit that returns just four starters and less than 40% of last season’s snaps on that side of the ball — 68th in the FBS.
Utah State
The Aggies made a bowl game in Year 1 under coach Bronco Mendenhall, but their two losses down the stretch still sting. Utah State suffered a 29-26 double-overtime defeat at UNLV, missing three field goals, including potential game-winners in regulation and overtime. It also blew a double-digit third-quarter lead against Boise State that kept it out of the Mountain West title picture.
Quarterback McCae Hillstead is back at Utah State after two seasons at BYU, and he’s projected to earn the starting job in 2026. Although there’s lost production at the skill positions, Utah State returns three starting offensive linemen. Javen Jacobs is the other key returning piece after leading the team in all-purpose yards (1,058) a season ago.
The defense needs to be far better after allowing 5.92 yards per play (tied for 100th in the FBS, eighth in the Mountain West) and 26 passing touchdowns (tied for 127th) in Mendenhall’s debut season. Three transfers are set to start in the secondary, headlined by Antonio Bluiett, an FCS honorable mention All-American cornerback from North Dakota who picked off three passes a year ago.
Washington State
The Cougars also enter 2026 with a first-year coach, adding another layer of uncertainty to an already thin roster. Kirby Moore, the former Missouri offensive coordinator and younger brother of former Boise State star and current New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore, takes over after Jimmy Rogers bolted for Iowa State after just one season. Fifteen players went with him, and another 22 found new homes elsewhere.
Moore is the fifth Washington State head coach since Mike Leach left for Mississippi State in 2019.
The roster turnover has left the Cougars near the bottom of the new Pac-12 in returning starters and percentage of returning snaps, just ahead of Colorado State (and not a single starter returns on defense). What they do have is upside in the portal class: their 28 incoming transfers carry the highest average 247Sports rating among all eight Pac-12 programs.
Big Sky Freshman of the Year and former UC Davis quarterback Caden Pinnick projects to start under center. Former four-star prospect Darrius Clemons, who missed all of 2025 with an injury at Oregon State, is back healthy and could have a breakout year in Moore’s offense if his body holds up.
Who are the top Pac-12 contenders in 2026? 🏆
| Team | DraftKings Sportsbook Odds |
|---|---|
|
Boise State |
+154 |
|
San Diego State |
+360 |
|
Texas State |
+550 |
|
Washington State |
+750 |
|
Fresno State |
+800 |
|
Utah State |
+1100 |
|
Oregon State |
+3000 |
|
Colorado State |
+4000 |
Boise State enters as the clear favorite, and it’s easy to see why. The Broncos won three consecutive Mountain West titles before leaving the conference and are returning with one of the most experienced rosters in the new Pac-12. The gap between them and the field isn’t as wide as the odds suggest.
San Diego State, Texas State, Washington State and even Fresno State are all bunched together in a competitive middle tier that could make the conference title race interesting well into November. Fresno State (+800) is the best sleeper value on the board.
There’s also a unique scheduling quirk built into the Pac-12’s new eight-team structure. With only eight football members, the conference can’t fill a traditional round-robin schedule without leaving one open date on every team’s calendar. The solution is something no FBS league has used before: a Week 13 “flex” game in which every team plays a Pac-12 opponent for the second time that season, with the league reserving the right to adjust matchups as late as six days before kickoff.
This extra game does not count in the conference standings, meaning it won’t impact who reaches the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday, Dec. 4, on CBS and Paramount+. And because the league waits until late in the season to finalize pairings, it also opens the door to strategic scheduling, potentially setting up favorable rematches to boost top contenders’ College Football Playoff résumés.
