Can Texas State hang with Gonzaga, San Diego State, others in loaded Pac-12 men’s basketball conference?

Texas State was officially introduced as the reborn Pac-12’s ninth member for the 2026-27 athletics season on Monday.

The Bobcats will wrap up their final season in the Sun Belt Conference before joining current Pac-12 members Oregon State and Washington State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State of the Mountain West and Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference.

As a relative newcomer to high-level athletics, how will Texas State fit in with some of the top programs outside the Power 4 conferences?

Boise State Broncos on SI is taking a look at how the Bobcats stack up with the rest of the Pac-12 in football, men’s basketball and baseball. 

We started with football and are now moving on to look at men’s basketball. 

Texas State’s Pac-12 men’s basketball outlook

The Pac-12 will be a big step up for Texas State in football, but the men’s basketball leap might require a ladder. 

The Sun Belt hasn’t sent multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament since the 2012-13 season, the year before Texas State joined the conference. 

Four incoming Pac-12 schools participated in last year’s NCAA Tournament: Colorado State, Gonzaga, San Diego State and Utah State. Boise State, which had made the NCAA Tournament the previous three seasons, was among the first four left out. Washington State reached the round-of-32 in 2024 and Oregon State made the Elite 8 in 2021. 

Gonzaga (2021) and San Diego State (2023) have both played in the national championship game in recent seasons. 

Head coach Terrence Johnson did guide Texas State to consecutive regular-season Sun Belt titles in 2021 and 2022, but the Bobcats have gone a combined 49-53 overall (22-32 Sun Belt) over the last three years. Texas State hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 1997. 

To compete against the likes of Gonzaga and San Diego State, the Bobcats will need to upgrade the talent in the program. 

Texas State beat out Colorado State, Montana State and others for three-star class of 2025 forward DJ Hall (Plano East High School), the No. 15 overall prospect in Texas in the 247Sports composite rankings. Another incoming freshman forward — Robert Fields of McDonogh School (Maryland) — held more than a dozen offers. 

The Bobcats also hit the transfer portal hard by bringing in guards Kyndall Davis (Louisiana), Jaelyn Lee (Texas A&M) and Cameron Simpson (UCF), and others.

Texas State will need to acquire even more talent next offseason to hang with the top teams in the new Pac-12. If not, the Bobcats will be a men’s basketball cellar dweller in a conference that should send multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament every year.