Texas State University and the Pac-12 Conference announced Monday the Bobcats are formally leaving the Sun Belt Conference to join the Pac-12 effective July 1, 2026.
The university’s Board of Regents approved the move with no objections in a special session Monday morning, formally completing a process that had ramped up in recent days. Michael Adams of the Austin Sports Journal was the first to report that the Pac-12 had formally extended an invite to TXST Thursday. The move to join the conference was put on hold by a Texas open meetings law that requires 72 hours for a board of regents metting to be called in the state’s university system.
According to a Pac-12 press release, the conference’s Board of Directors, including all current and future members, voted unanimously to admit TXST after its invite and TXST’s bid for admittance. The Bobcats will enter as the ninth member of the conference and brings the Pac-12 to eight full-time football members, allowing it to operate as a conference at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Texas State as a foundational member of the new Pac-12,” Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould said in the release. “It is a new day in college sports and the most opportune time to launch a new league that is positioned to succeed in today’s landscape with student-athletes in mind.”
As TXST leaves the Sun Belt, the school will have to pay a $5 million exit fee in accordance with the conference’s bylaws. With the Pac-12 announcing a new media deal with CBS just last week, the fee will be much easier to swallow for TXST who can expect a potential increase in revenue stream in a conference now flooded with successful athletic programs.
The Pac-12 conference now includes TXST, Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State and Utah State, which will begin play in the 2026-27 season.
TXST reportedly declined a verbal offer to join the Mountain West Conference last year and remained in the Sub Belt as the Pac-12 expressed interest, but now commits to the move as the conference has since had time to significantly develop plans for the deal, including signing additional media deals the conference said it would soon pursue in its announcement of the CBS contract.
The move comes as the university home to over 40,000 students has increased its investment in athletics and seen improvement across the board in recent years.
Despite moving to the FBS recently in 2012, the newest FBS member among the members of the new Pac-12, the Bobcats have seen the most recent success in college football besides Boise State. TXST earned back-to-back bowl wins in 2023 and 2024 for the first time since elevating to the FBS, all in coach GJ Kinne’s first two seasons at the helm.
The Bobcats won five Sun Belt conference championships in 2024-25 and won women’s indoor and outdoor and men’s outdoor track and field championships this past season.
The university’s recent investments in athletics include a $37 million renovation with the new Johnny and Nathali Weisman Football Performance Center and $149 million invested since 2022 on athletic infrastructure. The university also recently finished a fundraising campaign publicly launched in October 2021 which exceeded its $250 million fundraising goal by more than $25 million.
The university also saw a 25% in football attendance last year season, marking a second straight year of record-breaking attendance numbers.
After securing the conference’s first four new teams last September, the Pac-12 spent the next nine months looking to fill out its roster within its two-year grace period granted by the NCAA. Reports surfaced within that time frame that the Pac-12 was eyeing teams from both the Athletic American Conference and the Mountain West (whom the Pac-12 is currently mediating a lawsuit with), with Memphis, Tulane and UNLV being among the most commonly mentioned candidates. Teams from both conferences released statements of recommitments, significantly reducing the Pac-12’s chances of securing teams from the AAC or MWC.
Nine months later, the Pac-12 now expands to the Texas market, expanding the potential success of the new CBS deal and foraying long untouched by the conference. Texas has a rich history of football success, consistently hosting some of the largest football events on a yearly basis and is considered a hotspot for top college recruits.
The 6A Division I state championship drew over 36,000 fans at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T stadium last year and had the most players out of any state in On3’s top 300 recruiting rankings.
