The Pac-12 picked itself up off the mat recently, raiding the Mountain West Conference to bring its total membership to six schools. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State are joining Oregon State and Washington State effective July 1, 2026. It's rumored that the conference could also add UNLV .
Good morning! It's a beautiful new day #BackThePac pic.twitter.com/jfIU1Gk22u Football is the driver of all conference alignment, but men's basketball is on many people's minds, especially as the Pac-12 crumbled.
Now that the conference is back, what does it mean for college hoops? For starters, the additions are great from a basketball standpoint but present a troublesome situation for one of the nation's best mid-major conferences in the Mountain West. The Pac-12 is getting a San Diego State program that finished national runner-up in 2023 and three of the four teams qualified for the 2024 NCAA Tournament. For a league that once included UCLA, Oregon, Arizona and other perennial tournament teams, it's a positive step.
The Mountain West, meanwhile, is down to seven schools and lost three of its better teams. Last season, a record six MWC schools qualified for the NCAA Tournament, but the threat of losing UNLV and perhaps Nevada is real, which means the league must make a move quick. For the Pac-12, it is immediately a force in basketball and establishes itself once again as the best basketball conference exclusively out west.
Oregon State made an Elite 8 appear.