Fresno State, San Diego State Among 4 Schools Set To Join Pac-12 Conference
Four schools announced Thursday that they are leaving the Mountain West Conference to join Oregon State and Washington State in the Pac-12 Conference for the 2026-2027 academic year.
The additions of Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Fresno State appear to ensure the survival of a conference with a storied athletic history.
“For over a century, the Pac-12 Conference has been recognized as a leading brand in intercollegiate athletics,” Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said in a press release. “We will continue to pursue bold cutting-edge opportunities for growth and progress, to best serve our member institutions and student-athletes. I am thankful to our board for their efforts to welcome Boise State University, Colorado State University, California State University, Fresno, and San Diego State University to the conference. An exciting new era for the Pac-12 Conference begins today.”
When it comes to baseball, however, the new additions don’t figure to do all that much to fix the dissolution of a conference that once dominated college baseball. Only two of the four schools joining the conference—San Diego State and Fresno State—currently offer baseball as a sport, as Colorado State only has a club team and Boise State shut down its baseball program in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
Farewell To The Pac-12 As We Know It
Back in February, Mark Gonzalez shared a retrospective of the long and storied history of Pac-12 college baseball.
San Diego State hasn’t had a winning record since 2021 and hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since 2018.
Fresno State has had more recent success. The Bulldogs made the NCAA field of 64 in 2023 as the Mountain West Conference tournament champion. They have made nine NCAA appearances in the 21st century and were a Cinderella story as the 2008 NCAA champions.
The four-school addition is expected to be the beginning of a multi-step expansion for a depleted Pac-12 that saw a slew of big-time schools like Oregon, USC, UCLA, Washington and Colorado depart in recent years. After the loss of Arizona, Arizona State and Utah last summer, the conference had dwindled to just two remaining members in Oregon State and Washington State.
Per NCAA rules, a conference must have eight teams to qualify for automatic bids for postseason tournaments. Additional expansion could get the Pac-12 back to that level as the conference attempts to rebuild its stature and compete in an ever-changing college athletics landscape.
