Who’s in the Pac-12? Explaining conference realignment, Mountain West additions and more

Ah, the Pac-12. Great memories, even better players and coaches. Reggie Bush, Marcus Mariota, Pat Tillman, John Wooden, James Harden, the list goes on and on.

But that's all they are now, memories. The Pac-12 as most of us knew it is long gone and we all thought the 2024 version (with just two members remaining) was on life-support and we'd be burying it fondly in just a season or two.

Not the case, apparently! The Mountain West is generously "donating" it's heart to save the Pac-12 and give it a whole new lease on life! And by "donating" I mean the Pac-12 savagely took what it wanted to survive in this Mad Max world college football has evolved into.

So, let's get you caught up (as best we can) on who's in the Pac-12 now and what it will look like in just two short years.

Pac-12 membership (Past, present and future)

Here's a table of every school who has ever been a Pac-12 member, still is as of 2024 and will be as of 2026. You'll also find the years they were (are or will be) in the conference and their home stadiums.

New Pac-12 members

In classic "Pac-12 after dark" fashion, news trickled out overnight from Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger that the conference had plans to announce four expansion teams. Ironically, those four came from the conference that so graciously agreed to schedule its lone two members in football so that it wouldn't shrivel up and die after just one year.

Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State are set to leave the Mountain West Conference and join the Pac-12 in 2026. They will join Oregon State and Washington State, who decided to tough it out in 2024 after the 10 other members left for greener pastures in the Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC.

Former Pac-12 members

Most college fans are aware of the 10 schools who left in 2024. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah all left for the Big 12 conference. UCLA, USC, Oregon, and Washington all departed for the Big Ten. California and Stanford decided the ACC (oddly) was the best remaining destination for them.

But unless you're a Pac-12 afficionado, you probably weren't aware of the conference's early-19th century members. Idaho and Montana, now FCS schools, were a couple of the first expansion members after the conference first formed around the time of World War I.

Pac-12 divisions, scheduling and tie-breakers

The Pac-12 did away with the North and South divisions in 2023 and likely won't need to bring them back anytime soon. Oregon State and Washington State will play each other once this season in a de-facto Pac-12 championship game.

The conference will not have a championship game in 2024 (and most likely in 2025 too) because it made a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West Conference in order to fill out all 14 weeks of the season. That deal will expire after this year due to both conferences allowing a key deadline to pass (maybe the expansion plan was why).

It's unclear what the conference format will look like once the four Mountain West teams arrive in 2026. The Pac-12 is currently in the middle of a two-year grace period granted by the NCAA in the wake of the school diaspora. Every conference must have a minimum of eight teams to qualify in the FBS. So, the Pac-12 will need to add at least two more schools by the time things kick off in two years time.

The conference did not release any tie-breaking measures this season due to the fact that there is no conference championship game for the time being.

Pac-12 head coaches

With only two teams presently in the conference, here is some basic information about Oregon State and Washington State's head coaches.

Trent Bray - Oregon State: Bray was hired in 2024 after previous head coach Jonathan Smith departed for Michigan State. He started in Corvallis as a grad assistand and linebackers coach from 2012-14 and then returned in 2018 after a stint at Nebraska. He was the Beavers' defensive coordinator under Smith from 2022-23.

Jake Dickert - Washington State: Dickert was hired as Washington State's defensive coordinator in 2020 under then-head coach Nick Rolovich. He was promoted to interim head coach in 2021 after Rolovich was fired for refusing to comply with the state's Covid-19 vaccination requirement. Since then he's lead the Cougars to a 17-16 record as the full time head coach.

For more information on former Pac-12 coaches, check out our thorough explainers on the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC conferences entering the 2024 season.

Pac-12 in the rankings

Neither Oregon State or Washington State were featured in the preseason AP Top 25 nor did either receive votes. Both teams have a 2-0 record after two weeks and still have not received votes.

Neither also received any votes in the preseason or recent editions of the USA Today Coaches Poll. And, again, with only two members in 2024 there was no Pac-12 media poll.

Despite the Pac-12 being in a funky spot this year and likely next, it should be fun to see the lovable "Conference of Champions" (if it can still call itself that) return to college athletics.