Three years after USC and UCLA triggered a mass exodus by bolting for the Massive Ten, the Pac-12 has prolonged an invite to Texas State to present the convention eight football-playing members.
Texas State, at present a part of the Solar Belt Convention, is anticipated to simply accept the provide Monday, in line with a number of media shops. The college would be a part of the Pac-12 in July 2026.
USC and UCLA reworked the faculty sports activities panorama by leaving the Pac-12 on June 30, 2022, citing the Massive Ten’s $8-billion media-rights deal as the first motivation. Ten Pac-12 groups ultimately departed, leaving solely Washington State and Oregon State as members.
The Pac-12 contemplated folding, however as an alternative added 5 state colleges from the Mountain West Convention and Gonzaga, a personal, non-football enjoying college from the West Coast Convention.
When it accepts the invitation, Texas State would be the subsequent addition. The college made its first bowl look in this system’s 121-year historical past in 2023, defeating Rice within the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl. The Bobcats gained the identical bowl in 2024, this time in opposition to North Texas.
Texas State will give the Pac-12 eight football-playing groups, the minimal variety of members to proceed as an NCAA convention. Though lengthy within the shadow of Texas, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, Texas A&M, Baylor and Texas Tech, Texas State is a rising college situated in San Marcos, a booming suburb situated on Interstate 35 about midway between Austin and San Antonio.
The Bobcats additionally carry a fairly sturdy portfolio of non-revenue sports activities, having gained an award because the top-performing college within the Solar Belt throughout all sports activities in three of the final 4 years.
The Pac-12 had courted Memphis because the eighth football-playing college, however Memphis athletic director Ed Scott informed the Memphis Industrial Enchantment every week in the past that the college was working to affix a Energy 4 convention — a nonofficial time period for the SEC, Massive Ten, Massive 12 and ACC, 4 conferences that function with relative autonomy.
“I do know [Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould is] anxious about discovering her eighth full member,” Scott mentioned. “I’m anxious about attempting to get us right into a Energy 4 convention. That’s our first objective, unequivocally. That’s all the time been our objective.”
The Pac-12 has lengthy lagged in media publicity, particularly on tv, however on Monday introduced a multimedia take care of CBS because the anchor accomplice from 2026 to 2031. Texas State was inspired by the TV deal, and the Pac-12 was beneath strain so as to add the Bobcats earlier than July 1, when their exit charge from the Solar Belt would double from $5 million to $10 million.
Underneath the deal, CBS will broadcast a minimal of 4 soccer and males’s basketball video games per season on its essential community and supply a cable and streaming presence. All Washington State and Oregon State video games shall be broadcast on The CW, CBS or ESPN this fall. The brand new take care of CBS and different media companions would start in 2026 when Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Gonzaga be a part of the Pac-12 together with Texas State.
Texas State’s transfer would set off a domino impact, with the Solar Belt trying towards Convention USA for a substitute. Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky and Center Tennessee have been talked about as prospects.
The brand new Pac-12 is anticipated to be strongest in males’s basketball due to the inclusion of Gonzaga and San Diego State, however the convention could possibly be strong in soccer as nicely. Boise State made the Faculty Soccer Playoff final season, considered one of 5 colleges becoming a member of the Pac-12 that performed in a bowl.
