Rebuilding Pac-12 gets its needed 8th football school with addition of Texas State

SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) – Texas State is joining the Pac-12, giving the rebuilding conference the eighth football-playing school it needed to maintain its status as an FBS conference.

The Pac-12 and Texas State announced Monday that the Bobcats from the Sun Belt Conference will join holdovers Oregon State and Washington State, along with private school Gonzaga and Mountain West-departing schools Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State San Diego State and Utah State as the nine foundational members of the new Pac-12. The reconfigured league’s official launch is set for July 1, 2026.

Since Gonzaga doesn’t field a football team, the Pac-12 needed one more to remain eligible as a Football Bowl Subdivision league. Only Oregon State and Washington State had remained in the Pac-12 after the departures of 10 teams to the three other power conferences: the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12.

Texas State will be an all-sports member in the Pac-12 after being in the Sun Belt since 2013. The Bobcats, one of 14 football teams in the Sun Belt, made their FBS debut with one season in the WAC in 2012.

The Bobcats were 8-5 each of the past two seasons since G.J. Kinne took over as coach, and won the First Responders Bowl both years. Before that, they had never been to a bowl game and had only one winning season their previous 11 playing FBS football, a 7-5 record in 2014 under coach Dennis Franchione.

With the Texas State campus in San Marcos, only about 35 miles south of the University of Texas in Austin, it will be the farthest from the West Coast the Pac-12 has had an all-sports member. Arkansas-Little Rock is now an affiliate member for wrestling.

When the 10 former Pac-12 teams officially departed last year, that created coast-to-coast conferences. Oregon and Washington went to the Big Ten; Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah joined the Big 12; and Stanford and California became ACC members.

“We are extremely excited to welcome Texas State as a foundational member of the new Pac-12,” Commissioner Teresa Gould said. “It is a new day in college sports and the most opportune time to launch a new league that is positioned to succeed in today’s landscape with student-athletes in mind. … Texas State has shown a commitment to competing and winning at the highest level as well as to providing student-athletes with a well-rounded college experience academically, athletically and socially. We look forward to seeing the Bobcats’ future trajectory continue to shine big and bright.”

The Pac-12 last week struck a media-rights deal with CBS that sets up the network to broadcast a minimum of four football and men’s basketball games per season on its main network and provide a cable and streaming presence for the league from 2026-31.

Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill in a statement thanked the Texas State staff for its “collaboration and leadership through a transformative era in college athletics” from the COVID-19 pandemic to NIL and the most recent round of realignment. He also touted the league’s recent football success, including the Bobcats being among the 12 SBC teams in bowl games in 2023, and one of the seven last year.

“I will continue to update our stakeholders on developments whenever possible as we work to ensure the sustained rise of the Sun Belt Conference, a collection of like-minded, regional rivals with winning football traditions, passionate fanbases and enduring commitments to excellence in all sports,” Gill said. “The Sun Belt Conference is rising, and our best days are ahead.”

Texas State is a national research university with more than 40,000 students, and is among the 25 largest undergraduate enrollments among public universities in the United States. Kelly Damphousse, the president of Texas State, called joining the Pac-12 a historic moment.

“Joining the Pac-12 is more than an athletic move. It is a declaration of our rising national profile, our commitment to excellence, and our readiness to compete and collaborate with some of the most respected institutions in the country,” Damphousse said. “Our acceptance into the Pac-12 affirms the strength of our academic vision, our commitment to providing access to a Texas State degree, the momentum of our athletic programs, and the ambition that defines this institution.”