The other three schools are Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State. Reports of the Pac-12’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
The other three schools are Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State. Reports of the Pac-12’s demise were greatly exaggerated.
I wonder who they will fill out the rest of the league with. I assume they’re trying to leave the door open for Cal/Stanford/SMU if the ACC implodes, but that might not happen for some time. They will probably need to pick up another 2. Maybe a Texas school? If they further raid Mountain West, UNLV is surely a top choice.
As for Mountain West, I imagine they would try to backfill ASAP, but there’s almost no options left. Try to convince Idaho to move back up? Get the Montana and/or Dakota schools? They’re best move may be to merge with CUSA, since both leagues are a little light after being eaten up by other conferences.
I think in the immediate future, Memphis and Tulane are also on the short list.
I’m thinking that the Pac-12 may look east for some AAC schools that have been trying to join power 5 conferences. Memphis seems like a obvious choice here. USF has been wanting a power 5 invite for a while (especially after UCF got into the Big XII), but that might be too far east for them. UTSA seems like a good choice and Tulane could be a good fit as well.
As far as the Mountain West, assuming none of their other members jump ship, the most obvious replacements would be New Mexico State and UTEP, although New Mexico will probably fight to keep New Mexico State out of the conference. C-USA is getting two new members next year in Delaware and Missouri State, so losing NMST and UTEP wouldn’t be the biggest loss. Otherwise, the Mountain West would probably be looking at FCS schools who want to move up, which may include the Dakotas, Montana/Montana State, and/or Idaho (which used to be an FBS school).