Utah State agrees to join Pac-12 as league pushes for Mountain West members, Gonzaga: Sources

Utah State has agreed to join the Pac-12 and will be its seventh member, sources briefed on the situation tell The Athletic, as a dramatic tug-of-war between the Pac-12 and Mountain West remains in flux.

Earlier on Monday, four American Athletic Conference schools announced they would remain with the league after a strong push from the six-member Pac-12. Memphis, Tulane, USF and UTSA instead reaffirmed their commitment to the AAC.

The Mountain West spent the weekend working to get its eight remaining members committed to each other through a grant of rights or other financial means, with more than $111 million in exit fees and poaching fees set to come the league’s way from the Pac-12. Air Force, which was receiving interest from the AAC and the Pac-12, committed to stick with the Mountain West. Other Mountain West schools began to do the same.

But Utah State didn’t. Instead, the Aggies opted to move forward with the Pac-12, got an offer and accepted it, putting both conferences at seven members.

All eyes are now on UNLV, which was a top target for the Pac-12 after the AAC schools turned the league down.

The two-member Pac-12 of Oregon State and Washington State could have added all 12 Mountain West schools at no cost, based on a scheduling agreement the conferences signed last year. But the relationship between the leagues turned sour when they couldn’t agree on a 2025 schedule by Sept. 1 of this year. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State then jumped to the Pac-12, looking to get away from the lowest-investing schools in the Mountain West and hoping the momentum would create a new conference comprising the best of the non-Power 4 schools.

But the big push east didn’t pan out, and now the Pac-12 is looking toward more Mountain West schools it didn’t originally have in the plans. Adding Utah State increases the Pac-12’s poaching fees owed to the Mountain West to $55 million, while adding another Mountain West school would raise that again to $67.5 million, on top of the about $18 million owed by each departing Mountain West school in exit fees.

That is, if there is still a Mountain West at the end of this. Per Mountain West rules, an agreement by two-thirds of the league’s members would be needed to dissolve the conference, another semi-merger possibility that could get rid of any exit fees owed.

It’s not the first time Utah State was part of a plan that nearly destabilized the Mountain West. In 2010, Utah State helped the WAC lead “The Project,” which would have seen BYU leave the Mountain West to join the WAC in non-football sports and have more Mountain West schools follow. (The Mountain West formed as a breakaway from the WAC in 1998.) Instead, commissioner Craig Thompson convinced Fresno State and Nevada to join the Mountain West, which started the events that ended the WAC’s run as an FBS conference. Utah State eventually joined the Mountain West in 2013.

The Pac-12 and Gonzaga have been in discussions about the Zags joining the league, but an agreement or announcement is not imminent, people briefed on the situation told The Athletic. Gonzaga would not count toward the eight football-playing members required by 2026.

(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)