Against all odds, Oregon State and Washington State have found a way to keep the Pac-12 alive after its collapse. The two legacy Pac-12 schools convinced five programs from the Mountain West Conference – Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State, and Utah State – to come and join their league in 2026.
The MWC saw its schools targeted after teams from the AAC declined offers to join the league, including the Memphis Tigers, who apparently served as a primary target for the Pac-12.
But, according to Memphis athletic director Ed Scott, the deal that the Pac-12 extended to the Tigers was nowhere close to what it would need to be for Memphis to make the jump.
“I came here for a reason,” Scott said. “You heard me in the press conference, you’ve heard me in any interview I’ve done. I’m bullish on Memphis’ future.
“I think sometimes, we get enamored by the new, and we want to take a bad deal. That deal was not a good deal for the University of Memphis, it certainly wasn’t a good deal for our athletic department, and most importantly, it was a really, really bad deal for our Olympic sports.
The league needs just one more school with an FBS football program to maintain its autonomy as an FBS conference, but getting the last piece to the puzzle has been a bit of a challenge.
Then, to further complications for the Conference of Champions, it was reported on Thursday that UNLV intends to maintain its relationship with the Mountain West Conference instead of leaving for the Pac-12.
