Pac-12 Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe July 1 move unites the Aztecs with legacy Pac-12 programs Oregon State and Washington State. Four other Mountain\u00a0West defectors are also part of the Pac-12 \u2014 Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State. The schools will all compete alongside Texas State (formerly of the Sun Belt Conference) and basketball powerhouse Gonzaga (ex-West Coast Conference).<\/p>\n
Despite the famed name including the number 12, the current iteration of the conference features just nine core members, supplemented by a dozen affiliate members in \u201cOlympic\u201d sports, including UC San Diego.<\/p>\n
The rebuild comes after 10 schools \u2014 including USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington \u2014 exited the Pac-12 for the Big Ten and Big 12 in 2024, leaving only OSU and WSU to anchor the conference while it recruited a new lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cEntry into the Pac-12 ushers in the next great era of Aztec Athletics,\u201d SDSU Athletic Director John David Wicker said in a news release, calling the finalized transition a \u201cmomentous day\u201d for the university.<\/p>\n
SDSU President Adela de la Torre echoed that sentiment, calling the move \u201ca defining moment in SDSU\u2019s continued ascent as one of the nation\u2019s leading public universities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Aztecs exit the MWC with a conference-record 106 league titles.<\/p>\n
Visibility x Revenue<\/p>\n
The driving force behind the major shift in the college sports landscape boils down national profile and financial growth. Even in its rebuilt form, the Pac-12 carries higher national name recognition than the Mountain West.<\/p>\n
That brand power directly translates to more lucrative media rights deals. The influx of television revenue is crucial for modern athletic programs to fund facility upgrades and competitive coaching salaries, as well as Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for student-athletes.<\/p>\n
The revamped conference has already secured its broadcast footing. Moving forward, the Pac-12 will partner with CBS, CBS Sports Network, The CW and USA Network to televise every home regular-season football game across national broadcast or cable outlets.<\/p>\n
Additionally, about 70 percent of the conference\u2019s men\u2019s home basketball games will be broadcast on CBS, CBS Sports Network, USA Network or The CW, alongside up to two dozen women\u2019s regular-season matchups.<\/p>\n
The new conference structure offers a blend of fierce new challenges and familiar foes.<\/p>\n
Because SDSU brought four of its Mountain West rivals along in the transition, the football team will retain its established rivalries with programs like Boise State.<\/p>\n
The basketball dynamic will now be redefined by the addition of Gonzaga. The Bulldogs men\u2019s basketball program is a perennial Top 20 force, and almost guarantees nationally televised matchups for the Aztecs every winter.<\/p>\n
The conference has already announced that the 2027 men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball tournaments will be held March 9-13 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
San Diego fans won\u2019t have to wait long to see the new conference in action.<\/p>\n
The fall sports slate kicks off with women\u2019s soccer facing Boise State on Oct. 1, followed by the Aztecs\u2019 football conference opener against Texas State Oct. 3 at Snapdragon Stadium.<\/p>\n
Printer-friendly version<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East County News Service July 2, 2026 (San Diego) \u2014 A historic new chapter for San Diego State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[29615,150745,85912,74,76,75,301,5729],"class_list":["post-384601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-mountain-west-conference","tag-news-flasher","tag-pac-12-conference","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-san-diego-state-university","tag-uc-san-diego"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}