Although the 2025 college football season ended in early January with the championship game, it’s already time to look ahead to 2026, with one variable in particular: the Pac-12 conference.
The new Pac-12 will be official on July 1, with the new teams joining being Colorado State, Utah State, San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State and Texas State. Washington State and Oregon State are the only two surviving universities that didn’t leave the conference. Gonzaga is also in the conference, but won’t participate in football due to not having a team.
Some challenges will certainly be in store for the new conference. A new identity has to be formed — it will be impossible to live up to fans’ memories of the Pac of decades past. Logistical issues also exist in terms of scheduling and recruiting, in part due to the conference’s newness.
The conference schedule and details on the championship are unknown as of publication. With eight teams, every team will have the opportunity to play every other team in the Pac.
One possible scenario is for each team to play five nonconference games and then play seven in-conference matchups, facing every opponent exactly once.
To reduce some logistics of planning nonconference games, each team’s schedule could instead feature four nonconference games before eight in-conference ones, with four home-and-home matches featured in the conference (one for each team).
As of publication, all Pac-12 teams have four nonconference games scheduled, making it more likely (but not guaranteed) that eight in-conference games will be played. The Power Four conferences all have their full schedules finalized.
The new Pac has a fresh-faced coaching class overall. Three schools have brand new head coaches that were added after the 2025 season: Jim Mora for Colorado State University, JaMarcus Shephard for Oregon State University and Kirby Moore for Washington State University. Two coaches are in their sophomore season: Matt Entz of Fresno State and Bronco Mendenhall of Utah State.
The longest-held head coaching position in the new Pac belongs to G.J. Kinne of Texas State, who took the position after the 2022 season.
Mora has already established himself in the coaching world, having been the head coach for UConn and UCLA, as well as the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and Atlanta Falcons. Moore and Shephard are taking on the head coaching mantle for the first time.
The 2025 season gave a preview of some Pac-12 matches – there were 14 meets where two future Pac teams played. Some parity seems to exist in those matchups, as no future Pac-12 team went undefeated or winless when facing other future Pac-12 teams.
Texas State was the only team to not play a future Pac-12 member in the 2025 season.
As a whole, the new Pac-12 perhaps did not have as fruitful a recruiting season as they would have liked. No five-star recruits joined the conference.
Four different four-stars (rated by 247sports.com) will join the conference in the upcoming season. CSU is getting a four-star transfer, Texas State recruited one from high school and Boise State is getting two four-stars from high school.
Boise State’s recruiting class is ranked the highest of any Pac-12 school, with WSU’s class being ranked the worst.
My prediction for Pac-12 standings at the end of the regular season is as follows:
- Boise State
- San Diego State
- Texas State
- Fresno State
- Washington State
- Colorado State
- Utah State
- Oregon State
Boise State is a very capable team that went 9-5 in 2025 and 12-2 the year prior. Despite going 2-2 in “future-Pac” matchups last year, I think they’ll pull through to take the lead in 2026.
If it’s not Boise State, then I’m convinced San Diego State will lead the conference. Another strong team, they went 3-1 in “future-Pac” matchups in 2025. The Aztecs should be regarded as a serious threat, especially considering that they were a playoff contender for much of last season.
Texas State, Washington State, Fresno State and Utah State are teams with potential that I think won’t be able to take over the rebuilt conference, and will likely middle out. These teams are unpredictable, though, and any one of them could make a run for it or fail to find their footing at all.
Colorado State fans should be ready for anything. A 2-10 season is hard to bounce back from, but Mora is a capable coach who was followed by six of his UConn players to CSU.
OSU fans should temper their expectations. I don’t expect the 2026 season to go as poorly for the Beavers as 2025, but I have them rounding out the bottom of conference standings.
The Beavs’ loss of many key starting players to the transfer portal won’t help, especially considering that OSU was already one of the worst-performing teams in the country last season. Shephard has his work cut out for him.
The new Pac-12 is more than just a miniature Mountain West conference. It’s a new beginning for these Western schools, and how the Pac navigates through the early growing pains will be key to the success and longevity of the conference.
