Pac-12 extends formal offer to 8th football school

Texas State due to join San Diego State, other West Coast schools on Monday

Texas State Bobcats head coach G.J. Kinne. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Texas State has received a formal invitation to join the Pac-12, providing the new-look conference the ticket it needs to qualify as an FBC Conference and giving San Diego State a new conference opponent. 

Michael Adams of the Austin Sports Journal first reported the news on Friday, adding that the Texas State University System Board of Regents has scheduled a Monday morning meeting to officially accept the invitation and leave the Sun Belt Conference. 

The timing is perfect for the Bobcats, who will pay a $5 million exit fee to leave the Sun Belt rather than the $10 million that would come due on Tuesday, July 1. 

The Bobcats will become the ninth member of the Pac-12 for the 2026-27 school year and the eighth member that plays football.

It’s been rumored for months that Texas State was a strong candidate to join the league, which is rising from the ashes of the venerable West Coast conference that fell apart during a realignment free-for-all two summers ago. 

The Pac-12 was left with just two members, Washington State and Oregon State. Last fall, it added Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State, from the Mountain West, and West Coast Conference basketball power Gonzaga, which does not play football. 

With the addition of Texas State, the Pac-12 will have eight football-playing members for 2026-27 and nine for men’s and women’s basketball. The NCAA has an eight-team minimum to qualify as an FBS conference.

Just as San Diego State will be the only Pac-12 member located in Southern California, inviting Texas State will give the new-look league a presence in the football-mad Lone Star State. 

Coach G.J. Kinne has guided the Bobcats to consecutive 8-5 seasons and appearances in the First Responder Bowl. 

In basketball, the Bobcats haven’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 1997 and finished 16-16 last season, including 9-9 in the Sun Belt.

San Diego State has never played Texas State in football, although it has played twice in the Frisco Bowl in the Dallas suburb of the same name and once in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth.

The Aztecs are 2-1 against the Bobcats in basketball. The Aztecs won a neutral-site game in 1989 and each school won on its home court in a two-game series in the 1996-97 and 1997-98 seasons.