By Michael Adams
Austin Sports Journal
The clock is ticking for the Texas State and the Pac-12, but it looks as though a formal offer may arrive as early as Thursday, a source told the Austin Sports Journal.
Texas State University officials and officials from the Pac-12 Conference have been in talks over the past 24 hours, per sources. School officials have informed the Sun Belt Conference they anticipate an offer from the Pac-12 to become the conference’s eighth football member and ninth overall.
Texas State hopes to join the conference as early as the 2026 football season. In order to do that, several elements have to come together.
First. the Pac-12 has to extend an official offer for membership. Then, the Texas State University Board of Regents would have to vote to formally accept the offer and approve the move. There is a 72-hour of notice window for the university to call a board meeting by law.
The approval would need to be finalized by July 1 in order for Texas State to avoid a doubling of the Sun Belt exit fee from $5 million to $10 million in order to join the conference for the 2026-27 school year.
If Texas State does join the Pac-12, it would become the eighth football member and ninth overall.
Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Utah State will join the conference in 2026, with basketball powerhouse Gonzaga also joining the conference.
Texas State University has an enrollment of 40,000 students and is the state’s seventh largest college. The school has been a member of the Sun Belt since 2013.
The Bobcats claimed their second straight Vic Bubas Cup this past school year. The Vic Bubas Cup is the Sun Belt Conference’s annual all-sports championship trophy. It was the third time in the last four years Texas State has won the cup and fourth time since joining the conference in 2013.
Texas State athletic teams won five conference championships during the 2024-25 season, including the softball regular season title and volleyball tournament championship, while also winning women’s indoor and outdoor track and field and men’s outdoor track and field championships. Additionally, the Bobcats finished in the top four in women’s soccer, football, men’s indoor track & field and women’s tennis.
