In mid-September, San Diego State University said its early goodbyes to the Mountain West Conference and accepted an invitation to join the Pac-12. The Aztecs will officially become a member of the Pac-12 Conference on July 1, 2026.
SDSU has made great strides in the Mountain West Conference as one of its founding members over 25 years ago. The school holds a conference record of 96 league titles across all of its athletic teams, with the most being in the last three years.
After all teams aside from the Oregon State Beavers and Washington State Cougars left the Pac-12 Conference as a result of the BIG 10 and ACC expansion, there was a gaping hole in the Pac-12.
Joined by Gonzaga from the West Coast Conference, schools like Utah State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and Boise State are now all making the trip from the Mountain West together alongside SDSU, granting a new era for the conference altogether.
What do SDSU students think of the move?
However, SDSU students have mixed feelings about the move.
Some students are quite optimistic, thinking that it will provide great opportunities for growth and success both for the school and its athletic programs.
“I think it is a great move with SDSU going to the Pac-12 as it opens up many other doors and should get way more televised games on bigger stages,” SDSU senior Sean Proscher said.
“In basketball specifically SDSU can make a strong conference resume with Gonzaga coming in and the non-conference teams they play through Thanksgiving,” SDSU senior Ben Fadden said.
Others don’t think it was the most productive move, claiming that it wasn’t much of a move at all.
“This new transition is kind of weird because people are calling it the Mountain West 2.0,” SDSU junior Abigail Segoviano said. “All of the big schools like Stanford, UCLA … they all left the conference. Obviously new people are going to enter, but it’s not going to be the same. The Pac-12 back then was the powerhouse and now people are comparing it to the Mountain West since a lot of prior teams are moving into the conference as well.”
“Hopefully we can expand – in my opinion, the Mountain West conference was kind of boring,” SDSU senior Praneel Singla said. “There weren’t any real competitive teams, so if we could get competitive teams to be in the Pac-12, it could be more interesting in terms of matchups or conference matchups.”
The 2026-2027 season is a ways to go, but some students are anticipating the move from other big schools into the conference as well.
“I think Gonzaga going to the Pac-12 was super helpful to get other top schools to join it,” Proscher said. “But I would also love to see a lot more West Coast schools such as Saint Mary’s, San Francisco, and even some old schools who left the Pac-12 come back like UCLA, Stanford, and Oregon.”
“I’d like to see more California schools join the conference so we can have more California rivalries because I think they’re always fun to watch,” SDSU junior Mimi Simons said.
“I think any top 10 or top 20 competing school in any of the sports should join it,” Singla said. “I think it would be cool. If we’re also in a better conference, we could get better recruits and make our teams better. There’s always room for improvement.”
“The Pac-12 needs one more full member to join after Gonzaga joined, so I could see them going in the direction of a team from the American conference,” SDSU junior Roman Aguilar said. “Looking at a team possibly like Tulane or South Florida.”
Whether or not the new Pac-12 Conference presents a new frontier of competition for the Aztecs is something that we will not know until 2026.
However, for now, SDSU students are eager to see what is next for their athletics programs and which new teams will be the next to accept their invitations.
(Top photo courtesy of Derrick Tuskan, SDSU)
