End to PAC-12 instability in sight

In 2023, the long-lasting Power 5 format in college sports was torn apart due to mass conference realignment. One of the nation’s most beloved conferences—and the only conference that gave any real national recognition to West Coast teams— the Pacific 12 Conference (PAC-12), was almost entirely dismantled.  

Katy Ryan, a Rathdrum native and Lakeland high school graduate, is in her fourth and final volleyball season as Washington State University’s middle blocker. She has played in the Cougars’ games all four years and has started every game since the beginning of her freshman year.  

“Having a Power 5 conference represented on the West Coast was such a big deal, and it brought so much competition to this side of the country,” Ryan said.  

For over half a century, the PAC-12 has been a staple conference in nearly every major sport. What once was an American tradition to finish off a day of watching college football with a “PAC-12 after-dark” showdown was put to an end after the 2023 season. The national championship runners-up, the Washington Huskies, also won the final PAC-12 championship.  

The University of Washington, the University of Oregon, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California all left their longtime conference to join the Big Ten. The University of Utah, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University all joined the Big 12. Stanford and California joined the ACC.  

“Our mindset has been that we don’t want to change,” Ryan said. “There are different teams that we play but not different expectations for ourselves.” 

The choice to abandon the PAC-12 that many universities made was greatly scrutinized, especially by the two remaining teams in the conference: the Oregon State Beavers and the Washington State Cougars.  

Elly Schraeder, a Coeur d’Alene native and Coeur d’Alene high school graduate, is a graduate-transfer middle blocker for the Oregon State Volleyball team. She transferred from San Diego State after playing most of her college career there.  

“I do not think the Southern California schools belong in the Big 10, nor do I think Washington will survive in the Big 10,” Schraeder said.  

Schraeder joined the Beavers for their first year of play outside of the classic PAC-12. She wasn’t concerned with the dissolution of the PAC-12 being a factor this season because Oregon State still plays a lot of former conference opponents in volleyball.  

Along with current athletes, alumni have also expressed frustration with the way everything unfolded.  

At the time of the 2023 realignment, Michael Baumgartner, Spokane County Treasurer and a 1999 graduate of Washington State University expressed his frustration with the situation, along with maintaining his confidence that the school would return to its nationally successful ways in the upcoming years.  

“I have every reason to think that after the dust settles, that the same underdog, can-do mentality will allow Cougar sports to continue to excel in whatever the college football landscape brings,” Baumgartner said.  

Though this would have been hard to achieve had the Cougars remained in a two-team conference, the PAC-12 has recently made a statement to the rest of the sports world with a realignment move of their own.  

Just two weeks into the first college football season without the widely beloved PAC-12 after-dark game slot, the PAC-12 has announced the addition of five new teams that will join the conference in 2026. 

Taking some of the top talent from an under-the-radar conference, the PAC-12 welcomed five new teams, all from the Mountain West. The Boise State Broncos, the Colorado State Rams, the Fresno State Bulldogs, the Utah State Aggies and the San Diego State Aztecs are the newest members of the new-look PAC-12.  

Though seven total teams are still less than the end goal for the PAC-12 committee, it is an excellent start and creates a possibility for a new era in the best conference on the West Coast.  

For the five new teams, the realignment provides an opportunity to play higher-level competition more consistently, as well as get more national attention.  

The team that will likely have to adjust the most in the sports that generate the most revenue is the Colorado State Rams. That being said, their overall consistency across all sports throughout the 2010s is the reason they were chosen for the new conference rather than UNLV or a different Mountain West team.  

Boise State was an absolute no brainer when it comes to new PAC-12 additions. They have enough dominance over Mountain West competition in football alone to earn them a secure spot in the new-look conference. Regardless of performance in any other sport, with how dominant Boise State is and with how much revenue football generates compared to other sports, this realignment is a great situation for the Broncos.  

“Tickets were 140 dollars this weekend. When I was a kid that never happened,” said Dominic Bullock, a freshman Boise State fan at the University of Idaho. “It’s really cool to see that we’re finally being wholly recognized on a bigger scale.” 

Perhaps the overall most dominant team across all major sports in the Mountain West is the San Diego State Aztecs. After an impressive stretch of consistent success on the gridiron in the 2010s, the Aztecs football program has taken a considerable step back following a sexual assault scandal. However, with the men’s basketball program doing things over the last 14 years that have never been done by a Mountain West team before, the Aztecs also were a relatively easy choice for the new conference.  

“SDSU moving to the PAC-12 is a plan years in the making… I think the PAC-12 will just be an all-around confidence boost for SDSU,” Schraeder said. “The sports programs are capable of competing at a higher level and this will be the perfect opportunity for the athletic department to prove itself.” 

The Fresno State Bulldogs have been so consistent in football and baseball that nobody was shocked to hear that they were finally leaving the Mountain West after 13 years. Since 2013, the Bulldogs have appeared in five Mountain West championship games, winning three of them. Four of these were against the Broncos; the Broncos won the first two and the Bulldogs won the last two.  

The Utah State Aggies, similar to San Diego State, have had success in a variety of sports during their tenure in the Mountain West. They are tied for the second most Mountain West conference championships with four total. The Aggies athletic program as a whole has the third-best overall winning percentage in the Mountain West behind the Broncos and the Aztecs.  

With just seven teams, the PAC-12 is likely to add more teams in the coming months. The Mountain West may also add more teams after losing five of its top schools. Potential teams to join either the Mountain West or the PAC-12 include Big Sky schools like North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana, Montana State and Idaho.  

“The realignment is not what I expected,” Schraeder said. “The PAC-12 is basically just absorbing the top Mountain West schools, and I would love to see some greater diversity in competition and geography.” 

Though this realignment is a positive change for all four additions, the clear winners of this transaction are the Cougars and the Beavers. The two schools who stayed loyal to the PAC-12 and didn’t leave the conference for extra NIL opportunities are no longer panicking to find a home beyond the 2026 season.  

After the PAC-12 dissolved, both schools’ athletics programs suffered the consequences of no longer being in a Power 5 conference. This ultimately leads to fewer recruiting opportunities and less national recognition. Now, not only have they rejuvenated the conference to a larger size, but the Cougars and Beavers now have considerable competition in the PAC-12.  

Given their experience in a Power 5 conference, Washington State and Oregon State are likely going to succeed in most sports against the newly acquired schools.  

“The PAC-12 teams need to make a lot of adjustments to meet the caliber of the teams they are replacing,” Schraeder said. “I think it is safe to assume OSU will be at the top of the new conference in all sports.” 

Though Cougar fans have been very vocally frustrated since the departure of almost the whole conference, the new-look Pac-12 could mean a new era of dominance in Pullman.  

“I am excited that WSU is going to be a leader of something brand new and I hope that will give us an edge, especially at the beginning,” Ryan said.