Rebuilding the Pac-12 Conference centered around football. It’ll be a pretty good basketball conference, too, after landing one of the perennial hoops powers on the West Coast.
Gonzaga will become the latest member of the rebuilt Pac-12, the conference and school announced Tuesday, ending several years of conversations with other leagues as the Zags tried to capitalize on their basketball success and recognizable brand.
“I think what we’re able to bring to this conference is an enhancement to a basketball opportunity for them, but also what we got in return is a commitment that this conference really cares about basketball,” Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford said. “That it’s an opportunity for us to have an impact on them and be an important partner in who they are and what they do.”
Also Tuesday, the Mountain West moved quickly to secure its future by adding UTEP.
Gonzaga will move from the West Coast Conference, where it has been a member for more than 40 years and dominated for most of the last quarter-century. The Zags enter a conference that was being rebuilt around football, but should be pretty stout on the basketball court.
Gonzaga will become the eighth Pac-12 member along with holdovers Washington State and Oregon State, and fellow newcomers Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Utah State and Colorado State from the Mountain West.
Gonzaga will join the conference in all sports beginning on July 1, 2026, as the Pac-12’s only private college up to this point.
Adding Gonzaga still leaves the Pac-12 in need of another football-playing member for College Football Playoff purposes. Gonzaga does not have a football program.
On the court
Both conferences have been in a scramble to secure their futures outside the Power Four of college sports, but the addition of Gonzaga gives the Pac-12 the advantage on the basketball court.
Last year, Washington State, Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Utah State and Gonzaga all reached the NCAA Tournament, and two seasons ago San Diego State reached the national championship game.
Standiford said talks with the Pac-12 progressed “earnestly” last weekend and the school applied for membership Monday night. The application was approved unanimously.
Standiford declined to get into specifics of the financials for Gonzaga, but said, “this is a better situation for us financially without question.”
The Pac-12 began to restock for a 2026 relaunch last month by nabbing the five schools from the Mountain West to join Washington State and Oregon State, the only two Pac-12 schools left after a dramatic round of realignment took effect this summer.
The Bulldogs have thrived in the WCC, reaching the NCAA Tournament every year it has been played since 1998, with two Final Four appearances and eight seasons of at least 30 victories.
