What joining the Pac-12 means for Boise State football

A longtime dream of many Boise State football fans finally became a reality on Wednesday as the Broncos officially left the Mountain West for the Pac-12.

The Pac-12 is no longer a power conference after losing 10 of its 12 members to the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 in 2024, but the retooled conference projects to be considerably stronger top to bottom than the Mountain West.

The new Pac-12 is an eight-team football conference featuring holdovers Oregon State and Washington State, Sun Belt alumnus Texas State and former MWC schools Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. West Coast Conference power Gonzaga also officially joined the Pac-12 on Wednesday as a non-football member.

“Excited for the Pac-12,” Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson said of the move during spring practice. “We’ve kind of been in prep for this for a while. Now, it’s here. We’ve got our schedule. The Mountain West was awesome for us. We had some amazing years in the Mountain West. But excited for what’s next, excited for the Pac-12.”

The new Pac-12 should provide a higher level of competition for Boise State in all sports.

Since the creation of the MWC football championship game in 2013, Boise State (six), Fresno State (three), San Diego State (two) and Utah State (one) combined to win 12 of 13 titles. Pac-12-bound teams took up five of the six MWC championship game spots during the 2025-26 athletics calendar in football, men’s basketball and baseball.

By picking off the top of the MWC and adding a rising Texas State program that has won three consecutive bowl games, the Pac-12 should be the top Group of Six conference in 2026 and likely send its champion to the College Football Playoff.

“You’ve got a schedule that if you handle business, you have the report card to go play in the College Football Playoff,” Danielson said.

Boise State football will also have more exposure in the new Pac-12 with games on CBS, The CW Network, USA Network and CBS Sports Network. Every home regular-season Pac-12 football game will air nationally on one of the four networks.

While exact dollar figures remain unknown, the Broncos are also expected to receive a substantially higher media rights payout in the Pac-12 than their previous deal in the MWC.

In the lead-up to the Pac-12 move, Boise State also found great success on the recruiting trail. The Broncos’ signing class of 2026 ranked No. 51 nationally, the highest-rated recruiting class in program history.

Boise State will have six games at newly renovated Albertsons Stadium this season, including matchups with new conference mates Oregon State and Texas State and an intriguing non-conference showdown with Memphis.

The Broncos are entering the Pac-12 with plenty of momentum coming off three consecutive MWC titles. Under Danielson’s leadership, Boise State is in an excellent position to secure a fourth straight conference title and reach the CFP for the second time in three seasons.

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