Utah State reportedly accepts invite to the Pac-12 Conference

Utah State University is reportedly the newest member of the Pac-12 Conference.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported Monday afternoon that USU has accepted an invite from the new-look Pac-12, and will — pending confirmation — become the seventh member of the league, joining Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Oregon State, San Diego State and Washington State.
The news came amid a flurry of realignment reports Monday, as schools from the American Athletic Conference and Mountain West Conference had been weighing whether or not to join the new-look Pac-12.
Four AAC schools — Memphis, Tulane, UTSA and USF — all elected to remain in their current conference, while MW schools Air Force, UNLV and San Jose State all have reportedly decided to remain in the MW.
Per Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the Mountain West Conference gave its schools a deadline of 5 p.m. MT to sign a grant of rights agreement that would keep the conference intact.
According to Dellenger, the MWC has employed the promise of financial incentives to secure commitments from its remaining schools. The incentives reportedly include a “tiered distribution of the wealth” that would provide a financial boon to each member school.
Air Force, Dellenger reported, “is expected to receive a signing bonus of at least $10 million,” and UNLV is expected to receive a similar bonus to remain in the MW.
The Pac-12 didn’t take any of it sitting down, though. In order to remain a viable FBS Conference, the Pac-12 needs at least eight members by 2026.
As such, Dellenger reported that leaders of the conference, as well as its consulting firm Navigate, met Monday over potential options for expansion, including Utah State, UNLV and basketball power Gonzaga.
That Utah State was a target of the conference isn’t new information.
Multiple reports over the weekend noted that the Aggies were a potential add to the conference, along with UNLV, especially in the event that the AAC schools elected to not join the Pac-12.
Utah State quickly rose up the lists of desirable parties, in part, according to John Canzano, because school leadership had been “aggressively pursuing” an invite from the Pac-12.
“It wants to be included, and key donors tell me they would help subsidize the school’s move,” Canzano wrote Monday afternoon. “In the last week, the Aggies have garnered an increase in attention from the Pac-12.”
That Utah State donors reportedly are willing to help pay the school’s exit fee from the MW is notable, as the Pac-12 was unwilling to offer more than $2.5 million in assistance to Memphis, Tulane and USF if they were to leave the AAC for the Pac-12, and the cost of leaving that conference proved prohibitive for the schools, according to Dellenger.
“While the decision to remain in the AAC included several factors, the AAC exit fee – as much as $25 million – loomed as a hurdle,” Dellenger wrote on X.
Helping the Aggies’ desirability for the Pac-12 was the fact that the school is well positioned geographically, particularly as it relates to Boise State, Colorado State, Oregon State and Washington State.
Additionally, Utah State’s success in both football and men’s basketball — the Aggies have won 10 or more games three times in the last decade-plus in football and have made the NCAA Tournament four times in the last six years — didn’t exactly hurt the Aggies, nor did the fact that USU ranked No. 5 in the MW in television viewership over the same period.
“It (Utah State) falls into the ‘best available’ category very nicely given the geography,” Canzano wrote.