The Pacific Coast Conference, also known as the PAC-12 has seen major changes over the past year following the departure of key schools like Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA. The PAC-12 used to encompass all of the pacific northwest, representing collegiate, Division 1 sports. However, as of now, only Washington State and Oregon State University are current members of the PAC-12. All other teams have been lured to the Big 10, Big 12 and ACC, mostly because of the piles of money they received from brand deals. Now, Washington State and Oregon State have taken the Pac-12’s remaining assets and have been working to rebuild the conference with a huge warchest of now unused funds.

Recently, the Pac-12 announced that five schools from the Mountain West: San Diego State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Utah State, and most importantly, Boise State will join in 2026. “I think the new conference should be called the Moutain PAC, since the only teams left are from the mountain west,” a passionate Boise High student told me.

Now, the Pac-12 is looking for one more football-playing schools to meet the NCAA’s requirement for a minimum of eight teams to maintain its status as a conference. Gonzaga, a basketball powerhouse, has also joined, although it doesn’t contribute to the football side of the conference. 

The Pac-12 has begun targeting schools like Memphis in order to fill their requirements, but they declined the offer. The Pac-12 has also continued to explore other possibilities, including lower conference teams that could move up conferences. It is likely that a domino effect will happen, where conferences take teams from lesser confences to fill their gaps.

With a new era of PAC-12 the future scene for D1 college sports is unpredictable.