SAN MARCOS, Texas — Texas State is joining the Pac-12, giving the rebuilding conference the eighth football-playing school it needed to maintain its status as an FBS conference.
The Pac-12 and Texas State announced Monday that the Bobcats from the Sun Belt Conference will join holdovers Oregon State and Washington State, along with private school Gonzaga and Mountain West-departing schools Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State San Diego State and Utah State as the nine foundational members of the new Pac-12. The reconfigured league’s official launch is set for July 1, 2026.
Since Gonzaga doesn’t field a football team, the Pac-12 needed one more to remain eligible as a Football Bowl Subdivision league. Only Oregon State and Washington State had remained in the Pac-12 after the departures of 10 teams to the three other power conferences: the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12.
Texas State will be an all-sports member in the Pac-12 after being in the Sun Belt since 2013. The Bobcats, one of 14 football teams in the Sun Belt, made their FBS debut with one season in the WAC in 2012.
The Bobcats were 8-5 each of the past two seasons since G.J. Kinne took over as coach, and won the First Responders Bowl both years. Before that, they had never been to a bowl game and had only one winning season their previous 11 playing FBS football, a 7-5 record in 2014 under coach Dennis Franchione.
With the Texas State campus in San Marcos, only about 35 miles south of the University of Texas in Austin, it will be the farthest from the West Coast the Pac-12 has had an all-sports member. Arkansas-Little Rock is now an affiliate member for wrestling.
When the 10 former Pac-12 teams officially departed last year, that created coast-to-coast conferences. Oregon and Washington went to the Big…
Source link : https://www.nbcsports.com/college-football/news/rebuilding-pac-12-gets-its-needed-8th-football-school-with-addition-of-texas-state
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Publish date : 2025-06-30 22:53:00
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