Fresno State notifies Mountain West it is departing the league, will join Pac-12

Fresno State has informed the Mountain West Conference that it will leave the league at the end of 2025-26, according to a university source, a next step in joining a rebuilding Pac-12.

Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Utah State also notified the Mountain West they would be departing the conference, according to reports. Oregon State and Washington State are holdovers in the Pac-12, which was decimated by conference realignment that started when UCLA and USC bolted for the Big Ten. Gonzaga, which does not have a football team, will also join the Pac-12 in 2026 in the sports that it sponsors.

Fresno State and the other universities departing the Mountain West notified the conference just ahead of a June 1 deadline to avoid an exit fee doubling from $18 million to around $36 million.

It also was something of a financially-driven formality.

According to the term sheet Fresno State signed in September 2024, it could revoke its election to join the Pac-12 only if receiving an invitation to join a Power Four conference, then paying liquidated damages of $30 million. If Fresno State were not to become a member of the Pac-12 on July 1, 2026, for any other reason, it would have to pay the conference liquidated damages of $40 million.

The Pac-12 must still add one more full member to get to eight schools, the number required to be recognized by the NCAA.

The exit fee Fresno State and the other four Mountain West schools will pay remains unresolved. The Pac-12 and Mountain West are in mediation over exit fees and a poaching penalty that was part of a scheduling agreement between the conferences for the 2024 football season.

This story was originally published May 31, 2025 at 8:50 PM.