Texas State becomes ninth member of reborn Pac-12

The Pac-12 is officially expanding east. 

During a Monday morning board meeting, the Texas State Board of Regents approved the school’s $5 million buyout to leave the Sun Belt Conference for the Pac-12 beginning with the 2026-27 athletics season. Texas State officials are expected to sign the Pac-12 paperwork later in the day to become the conference’s ninth member. 

The reborn Pac-12 now has nine committed schools for the 2026-27 school year: current members Oregon State and Washington State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State of the Mountain West, Gonzaga of the West Coast Conference and Texas State of the Sun Belt. 

The addition of Texas State was critical for the Pac-12, which needed to add another football-playing school before July 1, 2026 to reach the NCAA’s eight-team minimum to qualify as an FBS conference. Gonzaga does not compete in football. 

Texas State’s buyout with the Sun Belt is $5 million. The exit fee was set to double on Tuesday. 

The future of the Pac-12 was in serious doubt when the conference lost 10 of its 12 members to the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12, leaving behind Oregon State and Washington State. The Beavers and Cougars won a legal battle against the departing schools last year and retained the conference’s assets.

Instead of joining the MWC or a different conference, Oregon State and Washington State chose to rebuild the Pac-12. MWC schools Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State accepted invitations from the Pac-12 in September 2024. West Coast Conference power Gonzaga came aboard the following month. 

Located in San Marcos, Texas State lies in the middle of some of the most fertile recruiting ground in the country. San Marcos sits between Austin and San Antonio on Interstate 35. 

The Bobcats have put together back-to-back eight-win seasons in football under head G.J. Kinne. Back in November, Kinne agreed to a new seven-year contract worth $2 million annually — one of the richest deals in the Group of 5.

Texas State recently won its second straight Vic Bubas Cup as the top overall athletics program in the Sun Belt.

Texas State will be the largest school in the new Pac-12 with an enrollment just north of 40,000, the seventh-largest enrollment among Texas universities.

With the loss of five schools to the Pac-12, the MWC has nine football-playing members signed up for the 2026 season: Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Northern Illinois (football-only), San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming. UC Davis and Grand Canyon are also coming aboard as non-football members in 2026.