DALLAS, TX – January 03: Texas State Bobcats coach GJ Kinne lifts the trophy while celebrating with … More
A few FBS programs made their conference realignment transitions official on July 1 with more college football movement coming, especially in the Pac-12. Heading into the 2025 season, Delaware and Missouri State are making the jump from FCS to FBS where they’ll compete in Conference USA. This brings the 2025 FBS membership to 136 teams. Additionally, UMass is abandoning its independent status for the MAC where it resided from 2012-15.
This latest round of conference realignment does not bring nearly as much buzz as the previous summer that saw Texas join the SEC as the highlight of major Power 4 movement.
The rebuild of the Pac-12 is the focal point of this next edition of realignment as it puts the finishing touches on its membership.
Pac-12 Realignment:
The Pac-12 has been a significant realignment loser after 10 teams exited the conference before the 2024 college football season. It watched Arizona, Arizona State, Cal, Colorado, Oregon, Stanford, UCLA, USC, Utah and Washington leave for other conferences. The Pac-12 will continue to consist of Oregon State and Washington State through this upcoming season, but the conference made another move to reach the eight-team minimum to qualify as an FBS conference in 2026.
Texas State officially announced it’s leaving the Sun Belt for the Pac-12, which will be the sixth program to join the conference before the 2026 college football season. The Bobcats will be in the Sun Belt for the final year this fall before joining Washington State, Oregon State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State in the next edition of the Pac-12. Gonzaga is a ninth member but does not have a football program.
It seems like the Pac-12 is set with its 2026 eight-team football conference for now, but realignment news can move quickly.
College Conference Realignment Tracker:
In case you’re not keeping score so here’s a quick look at the FBS movement that’s coming over the next two seasons:
2025 Conference Realignment
- Delaware: FCS ➡ FBS (Conference USA)
- Missouri State: FCS ➡ FBS (Conference USA)
- UMass: Independent ➡ MAC
2026 Conference Realignment
- Boise State: Mountain West ➡ Pac-12
- Colorado State: Mountain West ➡ Pac-12
- Fresno State: Mountain West ➡ Pac-12
- San Diego State: Mountain West ➡ Pac-12
- Utah State: Mountain West ➡ Pac-12
- Texas State: Sun Belt ➡ Pac-12
- Northern Illinois: MAC ➡ Mountain West
- UTEP: Conference USA ➡ Mountain West
This has not been made official, but On3’s Brett McMurphy reported Louisiana Tech is expected to leave Conference USA for the Sun Belt. This would bring the Bulldogs to the same conference as Louisiana and Louisiana-Monroe.
