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Pac-12 expansion candidates: Memphis Tigers

Conference must add at least one football-playing school before 2026

Bob Lundeberg

Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway high-fives fans as he walks off the court.
Memphis head coach Penny Hardaway high-fives fans as he walks off the court. / Chris Day/The Commercial Appeal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The rebuilt Pac-12 has eight members signed up for the 2026-27 athletics season: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Washington State and Utah State. 

The conference must attract at least one more football-playing member before 2026 to reach the NCAA’s eight-team minimum to qualify as an FBS conference. Gonzaga does not have a football program. 

The Pac-12, which poached five teams from the Mountain West and Gonzaga from the West Coast Conference, is expected to add between one and six additional members in the coming weeks and months. 

As conference realignment wages on, Boise State Broncos on SI is taking a look at schools that have been linked to the Pac-12 in various reports. 

We still start with the Memphis Tigers of the American Athletic Conference. 

University of Memphis

Location: Memphis, Tennessee

Current conference: American Athletic Conference

Enrollment: 21,916

Endowment: $341 million

Athletics budget: $62.2 million

Football stadium: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (50,000 capacity)

Basketball arena: FedExForum (17,794 capacity)

The case for Memphis

With a strong national brand and competitive football and men’s basketball programs, Memphis is arguably the premier athletics program outside of the Power 4 and Pac-12. 

Head football coach Ryan Silverfield guided the Tigers to 10 wins in 2023 and an 11-2 overall record last season. Memphis finished No. 24 in the final AP poll.

On the hardwood, Memphis is a two-time NCAA Tournament national runner-up and is on track for a seventh consecutive 20-plus win season under head coach Penny Hardaway. Hardaway, a Memphis native, starred for the Tigers from 1991-93 before moving on to the NBA. 

Memphis was recently rated the No. 75 most valuable athletics program in the country by CNBC, well within range of Washington State (No. 61), Oregon State (No. 66), San Diego State (No. 67) and Boise State (No. 72). 

Back in August, Memphis broke ground on the second of a three-phase, $220 million renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. The Tigers share FedExForum — a state-of-the-art NBA arena — with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Memphis is also a coveted TV market with a metropolitan area population of 1.35 million, ranking No. 45 nationally. 

The case against Memphis

There is nothing Pacific about Memphis, which is located more than 1,000 miles southeast of Fort Collins — the easternmost city in the new Pac-12. 

The travel concerns are real. Just ask UCLA men’s basketball coach Mick Cronin. 

“Travel-wise, it would be about 20,000 miles that our teams would have to travel in order to compete with the seven schools that are in there,” Memphis athletic director Ed Scott said in September after Memphis turned down an offer to join the Pac-12. “I just don’t think that was the right thing to do based on the finances we had. Now, if there was more money involved … that’s a different conversation.”

The money Scott is referring to also includes the AAC’s $25 million exit fee. According to multiple reports, the Pac-12 was only willing to cover $2.5 million of the bill. 

It’s also worth considering that Memphis might not view the Pac-12 as a long-term home in the ever-changing world of college athletics. The ACC and Big 12 could be looking for new members in the 2030s, and Memphis would likely prefer an invitation to those conferences. 

Verdict 

The ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 threw geography out the window during the last round of conference realignment. 

The Pac-12 needs to decide if maintaining regionality is more valuable than adding the best available brands regardless of geographic fit. 

There is no doubt the Pac-12 would be stronger in all sports with Memphis on board. But the additional travel is a clear negative, and the Pac-12 would lose its identity as the best all-Western conference. 

If the Pac-12 does decide to up its offer to Memphis, adding at least one more school from the region almost feels like a requirement. 

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Bob Lundeberg
BOB LUNDEBERG

Bob Lundeberg is a reporter for Boise State Broncos On SI. An Oregon State graduate, Bob has lived in Idaho since 2019 and is an avid hiker and golfer.

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