Pac-12 Basketball: What Gonzaga’s addition might mean for the league

Conference realignment seems to be a never ending topic in the world of college athletics and that certainly remains the case. With much of the focus on football and how the power conferences better align themselves, the Pac-12 has quietly had a major resurgence in recent weeks. It’s a resurgence that has already changed the future of two conferences and could have other long-term effects.

Entering this season with just Oregon State and Washington State, the Pac-12 showed that they weren’t going to cease operations, adding five prominent programs from the Mountain West last week. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State will each join the Pac-12 in 2026 and provide different levels of prominence in basketball, football, and other competitive sports. As we know, the league wasn’t quite done there.

This week provided the latest bombshell as Gonzaga announced that they would jump to this new-look Pac-12 as well in 2026. As things currently stand, this rebuilt league has 8 members, with seven sporting football programs. This is certainly not the end game for the Pac-12, though the addition of a prominent program like Gonzaga certainly opens up future possibilities.

First and foremost, the conference has its eyes on securing itself for the future. The current fabric of college football leans heavily towards the four power conferences, and this Pac-12 has work to do to compete with those leagues. In the weeks and months to come we’ll no doubt see how broadcast deals and other monetary functions fall for the league, leading us into other kinds of discussions.

We could easily speculate on other potential targets, like AAC teams or even UConn, but it’s clear that this entire situation has created quite an effect on the sporting world. This new Pac-12 raided the Mountain West, stealing nearly half of their programs and quite frankly taking several of the best in college basketball. That league has already announced their intention to add new teams and isn’t done with their own speculations.

The biggest domino of this entire process was Gonzaga’s decision to join this league. They’ve sat comfortable in the WCC for several decades, rising into a national power in basketball while winning numerous league titles against inferior competition. Despite potential to join the Big East or the old version of the Pac-12, Gonzaga stayed put all of those years; at least until this week. The WCC now has major work to salvage their own league, especially with a few of those teams potentially intrigued by a move to the Mountain West or this Pac-12.

Focusing back on what we already know, the current state of the Pac-12 is an 8-team basketball league that can make serious noise in the future. Gonzaga and San Diego State have both appeared in the national championship game since the pandemic began. Boise State, Colorado State, and Utah State have all been really solid in recent years. Washington State is fresh off their best season in nearly two decades while Oregon State made the Elite Eight in 2021 despite recent struggles.

The league is absolutely going to need more than 8 members to survive, especially due to the necessity of at least eight football programs in the conference. What’s important moving forward is that the Pac-12 doesn’t just add anyone and everyone to fluff their numbers, but the best possible programs to prolong the league’s future and build a strong conference.

Gonzaga’s decision to join the new league shows that the Pac-12 has a real future, grabbing one of the nation’s best basketball programs of the last decade. This league doesn’t have Arizona, Oregon, UCLA, or any of those other longtime members, but they don’t need them to survive. The product will look different, but the Pac-12 will survive if they get these next few weeks and months right.