SAN DIEGO -- San Diego State announced Thursday that it has accepted an invitation to join the Pac-12 Conference and will become a member of the conference on July 1, 2026.
The Aztecs will join Pac-12 holdovers Oregon State and Washington State. Fellow Mountain West teams Boise State, Colorado State and Fresno State also will join the rebuilt Pac-12, the SDSU Department of Athletics announced.
“We are ecstatic to be joining the Pac-12 Conference,” San Diego State director of athletics John David Wicker said in a statement on GoAztecs.com. “While we are grateful to be a founding member of the Mountain West with 26 years of success in the conference, we are excited at what lies ahead with these new opportunities.
"We will continue to compete for conference championships on the field and to graduate leaders in the community."
The story was originally reported Wednesday night by Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger and later corroborated by the San Jose Mercury News' Jon Wilner and Chris Vannini of The Athletic. Wilner reported that the six conference members would select two additional schools to join.
“For over a century, the Pac-12 Conference has been recognized as a leading brand in intercollegiate athletics,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said in a statement. “We will continue to pursue bold cutting-edge opportunities for growth and progress, to best serve our member institutions and student-athletes.
"I am thankful to our board for their efforts to welcome Boise State University, Colorado State University, California State University, Fresno, and San Diego State University to the conference. An exciting new era for the Pac-12 Conference begins today.”
All four schools are contractually bound to a $17 million exit fee to leave the Mountain West before the end of its current media rights deal, which is up at the conclusion of the 2025-26 season. Additionally, according to Brett McMurphy of Action Network, the Pac-12 would be required to pay $43 million in penalty fees for poaching the four schools from the Mountain West as a result of the football scheduling agreement struck between the two conferences for this season.
Multiple sources have reported that the Pac-12 is expected to help the four departing schools pay their exit fees. The Pac-12 has a war chest amassed from various sources after losing 10 members three conferences this summer.
Mountain West Conference commissioner Gloria Nevarez released a statement Wednesday night, saying "The Mountain West Conference is aware of media reports regarding the potential departure of several of our members and we will have more to say in the days ahead.
"All members will be held to the Conference bylaws and policies should they elect to depart. The requirements of the scheduling agreement will apply to the Pac-12 should they admit Mountain West members. Our Board of Directors is meeting to determine our next steps. The Mountain West has a proud 25-year history and will continue to thrive in the years ahead."
San Diego State had previously been mentioned as part of potential Pac-12 expansion last year until USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington left for the Big 10, with Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State subsequently joining the Big 12, and Cal and Stanford departing to the ACC.
At that time SDSU athletics director John David Wicker said in a statement, "As there has been a large amount of discussion about conference realignment nationally, we continue to do our due diligence to identify the best opportunity and fit in the interest of both our university and our student-athletes."
Oregon State and Washington State also have a scheduling agreement with the West Coast Conference for non-football sports that runs through next season.
The Pac-12 is in the first of its two-year grace period which allows the conference to continue as an FBS conference and member schools to compete in NCAA postseason events if membership is below eight members. It has until July of 2026 to return to eight team membership.
This story was updated at 6:05 a.m. on Sept. 12.