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Jul. 11—The conference crest is refreshed, a number of lawsuits are settled and the Pac-12 Conference, in all its glory, officially exists as of this month.
Following the departure of 10 legacy schools for the "greener pastures" of the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC between 2022-24, Washington State and Oregon State became necessary allies and the standard bearers for whatever the Pac-12 would look like going forward.
The two Pacific Northwest schools welcomed Gonzaga, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Texas State as full-time members of the new Pac-12 Conference. Each signed on over the last two years. The latter eight will compete in one football league, while GU, which does not sponsor football, will be the leading basketball brand in a nine-school league that figures to pack a punch.
With July of 2026 marking the official launch of the new Pac-12 Conference, here's your starter guide for the conference's new and remaining members.
Enrollment numbers are main-campus figures and are the most recent according to each school website or as of fall 2025.
Washington State
Nickname: Cougars
Location: Pullman
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Enrollment: 16,449
Located in the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse, Washington State has had its fair share of triumphs and struggles on and off the field of competition.
With Rose Bowls and NFL starting quarterbacks in its past, the WSU football program has reached a bowl game in all but one full season since 2015 thanks in large part to the late coach Mike Leach, who vaulted Cougar football into the national spotlight.
However, that history was not enough to earn WSU a Power Four conference bid, and instead, the school took an active role in resurrecting the Pac-12 alongside Oregon State.
WSU women's volleyball, soccer, swimming, track and field, baseball and men's and women's basketball have each experienced excellent to moderate success in recent years, with baseball making its first NCAA Regional since 2010 this past season, the Cougar soccer program having reached the College Cup (Final Four) in 2019, volleyball having a long streak of NCAA Tournament appearances end with the sunset of the legacy Pac-12 and both Cougar hoops squads playing in March Madness earlier in the decade.
Now, with Kirby Moore as its third head football coach in as many years, WSU will seek to chart a new course in the new Pac-12.
Oregon State
Nickname: Beavers
Location: Corvallis, Ore.
Enrollment: 25,374
The Beavers, WSU's partner in conference reformation, hold their own history in high regard.
Oregon State's baseball program is consistently among the best in the nation, and sports like women's basketball have made some postseason noise, too.
OSU fired former football coach Trent Bray after an 0-7 start to the season last October. Bray, a Pullman High School grad, is back in his hometown as the Cougars' defensive coordinator.
The Beavers join their fellow Pac-12 holdover, WSU, in employing a first-year football coach. JaMarcus Shephard enters his first season in the orange and black focused on creating "new history" for OSU in the new Pac-12.
Boise State
Nickname: Broncos
Location: Boise
Student population: 28,519
That school with the blue field attracts fans from across the state (yes, even up in Vandal country) and the nation. The Broncos' athletic department, led by engaging athletic director Jeremiah Dickey, has a real chance to be the standard bearer for Pac-12 football, having made the most recent and only College Football Playoff appearance among the new league.
In basketball and Olympic sports, the Broncos find moderate success, last qualifying for the men's hoops NCAA Tournament in 2024.
Coach Spencer Danielson has held the football reins since partway through the 2023 season and led the Broncos to the CFP with a roster that featured Heisman finalist running back Ashton Jeanty in 2024.
The Broncos claimed another Mountain West Conference football championship before leaving the league, beating UNLV 38-21 on Dec. 5 in a 9-5 season.
Gonzaga
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Spokane
Enrollment: 7,470
The slipper still fits and hasn't cracked under the pressure yet.
Gonzaga makes the leap from the West Coast Conference to a rebooted Pac-12 still sporting one of the nation's most recognizable men's basketball programs.
The Zags and coach Mark Few have qualified for 27 consecutive NCAA Tournaments since 1999. The streak has lacked a national championship, but GU has made the title game twice (2017 and 2021).
In women's basketball, the Zags have made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances over the last two decades.
Texas State
Nickname: Bobcats
Location: 44,596
The final school to sign onto this inaugural era of the new Pac-12 just over a year ago, the Texas State Bobcats are perhaps not getting the respect they deserve.
At least if you ask Washington State President Elizabeth Cantwell.
"Texas State is going to blow your little minds," said Cantwell in response to a question about the quality of opponents that WSU will play following WSU AD Jon Haarlow's introductory news conference in April.
A one-time back-to-back NCAA Division II football national champion (1981-82), Texas State has gradually worked its way up the ranks of college athletics, joining Division I-AA as part of the Gulf Star Conference in 1984 and making the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2012, joining the SunBelt in 2013 and now the Pac-12.
The Bobcats are coming off a 7-6 overall football season and will have fourth-year coach GJ Kinne leading them out of the tunnel.
Colorado State
Nickname: Rams
Location: Fort Collins, Colo.
Enrollment: 34,412
The Colorado State football team last lifted a conference championship trophy in 2002, but with former NFL coach Jim Mora in his first year at the helm, the Rams seek to change that.
CSU's best program by conference championships is women's volleyball, winners of 27 league titles.
The Rams' men's basketball team features a standard-bearer perhaps familiar to Pullman locals and a nationally recognizable March Madness folk hero.
Ali Farokhmanesh, the son of legendary WSU volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick and the architect of a wild 3-point shot in the 2010 NCAA Tournament to help Northern Iowa beat Kansas, spent his first season at the helm this past season and led the Rams to a 21-13 overall record and an NIT berth.
Farokhmanesh will make his first return to Pullman in about 20 years whenever the Rams travel to Pullman to face Wazzu.
Fresno State
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Fresno, Calif.
Enrollment: 24,000
The Bulldogs hold two NCAA Division II championships in men's tennis and track and field from the 1960s and their softball and baseball teams won Division I national championships in 1998 and 2008, respectively.
The Fresno State football program has generated decent buzz in recent years with former Washington and current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer leading Fresno State to bowl games and WSU's coach, Moore, serving as DeBoer's offensive coordinator in 2022 after several years as wideouts coach.
Moore was calling the plays when Fresno State dismantled WSU 29-6 in the 2022 LA Bowl.
Second-year football coach Matt Entz and the Bulldogs make the trip to Pullman this year, fresh off a 9-4 season.
San Diego State
Nickname: Aztecs
Location: San Diego
Enrollment: 41,184
The Aztecs' men's basketball team made it as far as the 2023 national title game. SDSU joins Gonzaga as the Pac-12's premier basketball brands.
San Diego State boasts perhaps the Pac-12's largest budget and a football program that claimed three Division II national championships from 1966-68 and last lifted a conference championship in 2016.
Football coach Sean Lewis enters his second season at the helm. The Aztecs lost to WSU in a blowout uncharacteristic of the rest of their 9-4 season last year.
Utah State
Nickname: Aggies
Location: Logan, Utah
Enrollment: 29,831
Veteran football coach Bronco Mendenhall enters his second season in Logan, Utah, fresh off a Potato Bowl loss to WSU in Boise. WSU flies south for the program's first meeting as conference foes in October.
The Aggies boast another sneaky good men's basketball program. Gonzaga and USU were the lone new Pac-12 schools to reach the men's NCAA Tournament this past season, both qualifying via a former league's automatic bid.
However, USU once again lost its coach, Jerrod Calhoun, to a larger job. With Calhoun now at Cincinnati, the Aggies turn to Ben Jacobson, most recently Northern Iowa's headman, to chart their future.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
Following the departure of 10 legacy schools for the "greener pastures" of the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC between 2022-24, Washington State and Oregon State became necessary allies and the standard bearers for whatever the Pac-12 would look like going forward.
The two Pacific Northwest schools welcomed Gonzaga, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Utah State and Texas State as full-time members of the new Pac-12 Conference. Each signed on over the last two years. The latter eight will compete in one football league, while GU, which does not sponsor football, will be the leading basketball brand in a nine-school league that figures to pack a punch.
With July of 2026 marking the official launch of the new Pac-12 Conference, here's your starter guide for the conference's new and remaining members.
Enrollment numbers are main-campus figures and are the most recent according to each school website or as of fall 2025.
Washington State
Nickname: Cougars
Location: Pullman
Advertisement
Enrollment: 16,449
Located in the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse, Washington State has had its fair share of triumphs and struggles on and off the field of competition.
With Rose Bowls and NFL starting quarterbacks in its past, the WSU football program has reached a bowl game in all but one full season since 2015 thanks in large part to the late coach Mike Leach, who vaulted Cougar football into the national spotlight.
However, that history was not enough to earn WSU a Power Four conference bid, and instead, the school took an active role in resurrecting the Pac-12 alongside Oregon State.
WSU women's volleyball, soccer, swimming, track and field, baseball and men's and women's basketball have each experienced excellent to moderate success in recent years, with baseball making its first NCAA Regional since 2010 this past season, the Cougar soccer program having reached the College Cup (Final Four) in 2019, volleyball having a long streak of NCAA Tournament appearances end with the sunset of the legacy Pac-12 and both Cougar hoops squads playing in March Madness earlier in the decade.
Now, with Kirby Moore as its third head football coach in as many years, WSU will seek to chart a new course in the new Pac-12.
Oregon State
Nickname: Beavers
Location: Corvallis, Ore.
Enrollment: 25,374
The Beavers, WSU's partner in conference reformation, hold their own history in high regard.
Oregon State's baseball program is consistently among the best in the nation, and sports like women's basketball have made some postseason noise, too.
OSU fired former football coach Trent Bray after an 0-7 start to the season last October. Bray, a Pullman High School grad, is back in his hometown as the Cougars' defensive coordinator.
The Beavers join their fellow Pac-12 holdover, WSU, in employing a first-year football coach. JaMarcus Shephard enters his first season in the orange and black focused on creating "new history" for OSU in the new Pac-12.
Boise State
Nickname: Broncos
Location: Boise
Student population: 28,519
That school with the blue field attracts fans from across the state (yes, even up in Vandal country) and the nation. The Broncos' athletic department, led by engaging athletic director Jeremiah Dickey, has a real chance to be the standard bearer for Pac-12 football, having made the most recent and only College Football Playoff appearance among the new league.
In basketball and Olympic sports, the Broncos find moderate success, last qualifying for the men's hoops NCAA Tournament in 2024.
Coach Spencer Danielson has held the football reins since partway through the 2023 season and led the Broncos to the CFP with a roster that featured Heisman finalist running back Ashton Jeanty in 2024.
The Broncos claimed another Mountain West Conference football championship before leaving the league, beating UNLV 38-21 on Dec. 5 in a 9-5 season.
Gonzaga
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Spokane
Enrollment: 7,470
The slipper still fits and hasn't cracked under the pressure yet.
Gonzaga makes the leap from the West Coast Conference to a rebooted Pac-12 still sporting one of the nation's most recognizable men's basketball programs.
The Zags and coach Mark Few have qualified for 27 consecutive NCAA Tournaments since 1999. The streak has lacked a national championship, but GU has made the title game twice (2017 and 2021).
In women's basketball, the Zags have made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances over the last two decades.
Texas State
Nickname: Bobcats
Location: 44,596
The final school to sign onto this inaugural era of the new Pac-12 just over a year ago, the Texas State Bobcats are perhaps not getting the respect they deserve.
At least if you ask Washington State President Elizabeth Cantwell.
"Texas State is going to blow your little minds," said Cantwell in response to a question about the quality of opponents that WSU will play following WSU AD Jon Haarlow's introductory news conference in April.
A one-time back-to-back NCAA Division II football national champion (1981-82), Texas State has gradually worked its way up the ranks of college athletics, joining Division I-AA as part of the Gulf Star Conference in 1984 and making the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2012, joining the SunBelt in 2013 and now the Pac-12.
The Bobcats are coming off a 7-6 overall football season and will have fourth-year coach GJ Kinne leading them out of the tunnel.
Colorado State
Nickname: Rams
Location: Fort Collins, Colo.
Enrollment: 34,412
The Colorado State football team last lifted a conference championship trophy in 2002, but with former NFL coach Jim Mora in his first year at the helm, the Rams seek to change that.
CSU's best program by conference championships is women's volleyball, winners of 27 league titles.
The Rams' men's basketball team features a standard-bearer perhaps familiar to Pullman locals and a nationally recognizable March Madness folk hero.
Ali Farokhmanesh, the son of legendary WSU volleyball coach Cindy Fredrick and the architect of a wild 3-point shot in the 2010 NCAA Tournament to help Northern Iowa beat Kansas, spent his first season at the helm this past season and led the Rams to a 21-13 overall record and an NIT berth.
Farokhmanesh will make his first return to Pullman in about 20 years whenever the Rams travel to Pullman to face Wazzu.
Fresno State
Nickname: Bulldogs
Location: Fresno, Calif.
Enrollment: 24,000
The Bulldogs hold two NCAA Division II championships in men's tennis and track and field from the 1960s and their softball and baseball teams won Division I national championships in 1998 and 2008, respectively.
The Fresno State football program has generated decent buzz in recent years with former Washington and current Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer leading Fresno State to bowl games and WSU's coach, Moore, serving as DeBoer's offensive coordinator in 2022 after several years as wideouts coach.
Moore was calling the plays when Fresno State dismantled WSU 29-6 in the 2022 LA Bowl.
Second-year football coach Matt Entz and the Bulldogs make the trip to Pullman this year, fresh off a 9-4 season.
San Diego State
Nickname: Aztecs
Location: San Diego
Enrollment: 41,184
The Aztecs' men's basketball team made it as far as the 2023 national title game. SDSU joins Gonzaga as the Pac-12's premier basketball brands.
San Diego State boasts perhaps the Pac-12's largest budget and a football program that claimed three Division II national championships from 1966-68 and last lifted a conference championship in 2016.
Football coach Sean Lewis enters his second season at the helm. The Aztecs lost to WSU in a blowout uncharacteristic of the rest of their 9-4 season last year.
Utah State
Nickname: Aggies
Location: Logan, Utah
Enrollment: 29,831
Veteran football coach Bronco Mendenhall enters his second season in Logan, Utah, fresh off a Potato Bowl loss to WSU in Boise. WSU flies south for the program's first meeting as conference foes in October.
The Aggies boast another sneaky good men's basketball program. Gonzaga and USU were the lone new Pac-12 schools to reach the men's NCAA Tournament this past season, both qualifying via a former league's automatic bid.
However, USU once again lost its coach, Jerrod Calhoun, to a larger job. With Calhoun now at Cincinnati, the Aggies turn to Ben Jacobson, most recently Northern Iowa's headman, to chart their future.
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2260, [email protected], or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.
Continue reading...
