Pac-12 Conference

The **Pac-12 Conference** is a group of universities who play each other in football, basketball, and other sports.  It has won more national championships than any other conference.

The history of the Pac-12 started in 1915 with the founding of the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) by four schools in West Coast states. By 1928, the membership grew to 10 schools. One of these members left in 1950. In 1959, after years of infighting between members and a series of "pay-for-play" scandals in the 1950s, the PCC disbanded. Four of its members—the University of California, Berkeley (California), the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Southern California (USC), and the University of Washington—then formed the Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) under a new charter that still functions. Another PCC member, Stanford University, joined a month later. By 1964, three more PCC members, the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Washington State University, joined. In 1968, the conference changed its name to the Pacific-8 Conference, abbreviated as Pac-8.

The conference name changed to Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) in 1978 when Arizona's two largest universities, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University, joined. In 2011, with the arrival of the University of Colorado Boulder (Colorado) and the University of Utah, the conference name became Pac-12 Conference (not "Pacific").

Despite the PCC and Pac-12 operating under different charters, the Pac-12 includes the PCC in its own history.

After 10 of the previous 12 members left in 2024, the conference now has only 2 members. Seven new members will join in July 2026.

## Current members

|School|Location|Founded|Type|Nickname|Joined||||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=2|Oregon State University|rowspan=2|Corvallis, Oregon|rowspan=2|1868|rowspan=2|Public|rowspan=2|Beavers|1915|
|1964|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|Washington State University|rowspan=2|Pullman, Washington|rowspan=2|1890|rowspan=2|Public|rowspan=2|Cougars|1915|
|1962|||||||||||

## Future members

Gonzaga is the only future member without a football team, having last played the sport in 1941.
|School|Location|Founded|Type|Nickname|Joining|Current conference|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|Boise State University|Boise, Idaho|1932|Public|Broncos|2026|Mountain West Conference|
|Colorado State University|Fort Collins, Colorado|1870|Public|Rams|2026|Mountain West Conference|
|(Fresno State)|Fresno, California|1911|Public|Bulldogs|2026|Mountain West Conference|
|Gonzaga University|Spokane, Washington|1887|Private|Bulldogs|2026|West Coast Conference|
|San Diego State University|San Diego, California|1897|Public|Aztecs|2026|Mountain West Conference|
|Texas State University|San Marcos, Texas|1899|Public|Bobcats|2026|Sun Belt Conference|
|Utah State University|Logan, Utah|1888|Public|Aggies|2026|Mountain West Conference|

## Former members

No school had left the Pac-12 from its founding as the AAWU in 1959 until 2024, when 10 of its 12 schools left. Two members of the PCC, Idaho and Montana, were not invited to join the AAWU or its successors.
|Institution||Location||Founded||Joined||Left||Type||Nickname||Current conference|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|****|Missoula, Montana|1893|1924|1950|rowspan=11|Public|Grizzlies|rowspan=2|Big Sky||||||
|****|Moscow, Idaho|1889|1922|rowspan=2|1959|Vandals|||||||||
|rowspan=2|****|rowspan=2|Eugene, Oregon|rowspan=2|1876|1915|rowspan=2|Ducks|rowspan=4|Big Ten|||||
|1964|rowspan=10|2024|||||||||||||
|****|Seattle, Washington|1861|1915|Huskies|||||||||||
|****|Los Angeles, California|1919|1928|Bruins|||||||||||
|****|Tucson, Arizona|rowspan=2|1885|rowspan=2|1978|Wildcats|rowspan=4|Big 12|||||||
|**Arizona State University**|Tempe, Arizona|Sun Devils|||||||||||||
|****|Boulder, Colorado|1876|rowspan=2|2011|Buffaloes||||||||||
|****|Salt Lake City, Utah|1850|Utes||||||||||||
|'''|Berkeley, California|1868|1915|Golden Bears|rowspan=2|ACC|||||||||
|**Stanford University**|Stanford, California|1891|1918|rowspan=2|Private|Cardinal|||||||||
|****|Los Angeles, California|1880|1922|Trojans|Big Ten||||||||||