You can call it many things—the new Pac-12; the Six-Pac (and counting); an elevated Mountain West; or just a good college try—but you can’t call the conference a power. At least not by its previous financial standards.
On Thursday morning, the current, two-member Pac-12 Conference, consisting of Oregon State and Washington State, announced that it had accepted the invitations of four MWC schools—Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State—to join the league starting in 2026.
In a statement, Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould called the additions a continuation of the league’s century-long history as a “leading brand in college athletics.”
Gould added: “We will continue to pursue bold cutting-edge opportunities for growth and progress, to best serve our member institutions and student-athletes.”
The Pac-12 still would need to add two more schools to have the eight-member minimum necessary to be officially recognized by the NCAA.
In 2022-23, before its richest teams were purloined by other power conferences, the average public Pac-12 athletic department spent $130.8 million and earned $121.5 million in revenue. By comparison, the six current schools that will make up the future conference averaged $76.7 million in expenses and $74.7 million in revenue during that same time. Even more stark is the difference in the average schools’ generated revenue (leaving aside school and government support) between the old guard ($103.1 million) and the new crew ($55 million).
At a league level, the Pac-12 set a revenue record in FY23, bringing in $603.8 million just before it saw 10 of its dozen members depart. That fiscal year, the conference distributed roughly $33 million to each of its members, which was about $3 million less than it distributed on average in FY22. On the other hand, Boise State ($7.9 million) was the only Mountain West school to receive a league distribution of at least $6 million in FY23.
In March, Washington State and Oregon State reached a settlement with the Pac-12’s ship-jumpers, who agreed to forfeit more than $65 million in conference distributions. OSU and WSU were far and away the conference's poorest athletic departments, generating $91.6 million and $78.9 million, respectively. By comparison, Washington and Oregon generated $151.6 million and $150.6 million in 2022-23 revenue.
The Pac-12’s financial collapse began in June 2022, when the Big Ten unanimously voted to admit UCLA and USC. That was followed a year later by Oregon and Washington joining the Big Ten. Subsequently, Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah glommed on to the Big 12 while Stanford and California went bi-coastal, accepting last-minute refuge in the ACC.
Amid the departures, it often seemed as if the Pac-12 would simply go out of business, with Oregon State and Washington State ending up in the MWC.
The league defied those expectations insofar as it has endured, for now, albeit with a much lighter wallet.