Basketball powerhouse Gonzaga will become the latest member of the rebuilt Pac-12 Conference, the school announced Tuesday.
Gonzaga will move from the West Coast Conference where it has dominated for most of the last quarter century into a conference that was being rebuilt around football, but should be pretty impressive on the basketball court too.
The university, based in Spokane, Wash., will become the eighth Pac-12 member along with holdovers Washington State and Oregon State, and, soon to be late of the Mountain West, San Diego State, Boise State, Fresno State, Utah State and Colorado State.
Gonzaga will join the conference in all of its sports beginning July 1, 2026, as the Pac-12’s only private college – for now.
“Today represents an exciting milestone for the Pac-12 as we welcome another outstanding institution with a rich history of success into our league,” Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said.
Adding Gonzaga still leaves the Pac-12 in need of another football-playing member for CFP purposes. Gonzaga does not have a football program.
The Mountain West is in the same position of still needing to add one more football-playing member, even as the conference also moved quickly to secure its future, adding UTEP on Tuesday.
The Miners will leave Conference USA beginning in 2026.
Both conferences have been in a scramble to secure their futures outside the Power Four of college sports, but the addition of Gonzaga clearly gives the Pac-12 the advantage on the basketball court.
Last year, the Aztecs, Washington State, Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State and Gonzaga all reached the NCAA Tournament in men’s basketball. Two seasons ago San Diego State reached the national championship game.
e 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.
The Zags also have become a perennial tournament team in women’s basketball.
Gonzaga athletic director Chris Standiford said talks with the Pac-12 progressed “earnestly” last weekend. When the school formally applied for membership Monday night, it was unanimously approved.
“We are excited to join a conference with great tradition and a commitment to innovating during this evolving time in collegiate athletics,” Standiford said.
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.
“Following discussions with Pac-12 member presidents, I believe membership will represent an opportunity to participate in building a conference that imagines new, forward-thinking ways to support student-athletes in a rapidly changing collegiate sports landscape,” Gonzaga President Thayne McCulloh said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
