Which schools could Pac-12 target next? Insider weighs in

The Pac-12 has taken a major step toward rebuilding its depleted league, announcing Thursday that it’s adding Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State to the conference in 2026.

Pac-12 officially adding 4 teams from Mountain West

Those four Mountain West schools will join Washington State and Oregon State in the new-look Pac-12, which has been operating as a two-team league after 10 of its 12 former schools were poached by other conferences last summer.

“They had quadruplets,” college football insider Brett McMurphy of The Action Network said Thursday on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy. “Congrats to the new parents. They tripled in size. They went from two to six.”

With the Pac-12 now at six schools, the league is still two shy of the eight-school minimum to be recognized as an FBS conference. The league has until July 1, 2026 – the end of its two-year grace period allowed by the NCAA – to reach that number.

That leads to the natural question: Who will be the next schools the Pac-12 adds?

“Here’s the reality of it: If they knew who the next two would be, they would have brought them on right now,” McMurphy said. “So obviously there’s – I don’t want to necessarily say disagreement – but maybe they haven’t come to a complete resolution on exactly who those two are going to be. Are they going to be more teams from the Mountain West – potentially a UNLV or an Air Force? Could it potentially be somebody from the American Athletic Conference, like a Memphis, maybe a Tulane? Do they want to take a shot on an FCS juggernaut like a North Dakota State or a South Dakota State?

“That’s what they’ve got to figure out. If they knew exactly who they wanted, then they would have brought them on. So the fact that they didn’t tells me they’ve got to figure that out. All of the new members, plus Oregon State and Washington State, obviously will make that decision together as a conference.”

The ‘totem pole’ of modern-day college athletics

The Pac-12’s four additions will leave the Mountain West with just eight schools: Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming.

It also robs the Mountain West of Boise State, its most prized football member. The Broncos have reached the 10-win mark in 16 of the past 21 full-length seasons, including three Fiesta Bowl appearances during that span.

McMurphy said conference realignment is simply the unfortunate reality of a modern-day college football hierarchy.

“The thing is, people get so personal,” McMurphy said. “It’s like you’re talking about a relative if you talk negative about a certain school. I take all the names out of it and just say, look at college football like a big totem pole. You’ve got the Big Ten and the SEC on top, and you’ve got Conference USA at the bottom. And then you can slot the other conferences – Big 12, ACC, Mountain West, Pac-12, etc.– down the totem pole. If there’s a conference above you that offers you the chance to move up to that conference, you’re going to move. There’s nothing the commissioner can do and there’s nothing the other schools can do, because you’re going to make more money in that other conference.

“It’s unfortunate for the Mountain West. Right now, they’re left with eight schools. If the Pac-12 goes and gets two more schools from the Mountain West, then the Mountain West is going to have to turn around and grab from a conference below them to get back up to eight. But certainly this was expected. There was nothing anyone could do.”

McMurphy was then asked if any other conferences can ultimately compete with the SEC and Big Ten, who now hold the vast majority of college football’s top programs.

His answer: They can compete on the field, but not from a financial perspective.

“I want to be clear: I’m not talking about games on Saturday,” McMurphy said. “Any team can beat any team. I don’t care what conference you’re from. What I’m talking about is the other 364 days a year when the Big Ten and the SEC are making $80 million to $90 million in media rights revenue per year and the non-power conference schools from the Pac-12, the Mountain West, etc. are making somewhere between $6 million to $10 million.

“I’ve mentioned this to some of the smaller conferences: You guys are in a gunfight. The other conference has a loaded shotgun and you’ve got a sport (pistol). So that’s how that’s gonna work out. And I hate that.”

Listen to the full conversation with Brett McMurphy at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More on WSU Cougars and the Pac-12

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• WSU, OSU determined to fight on as Pac-12, promise bright future

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