Opinion: PAC 12 poaching changes little for Utah State; college football landscape

When news broke late Wednesday night that Mountain West programs San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and Boise State would be leaving for the now-back-from-the-dead PAC 12 conference, the overwhelming sentiment through Aggieville was ‘Oh no, not this again.’ 

For those hearing the news for the first time, the above-mentioned teams are leaving the Mountain West to join the PAC 12 before the 2026-2027 academic year. 

Utah State has a rich history of being excluded from big conference re-alignments, leaving them alone and without a partner to dance with at the ball. In 1962, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) was formed, dissolving the Mountain States Conference that USU previously belonged to. With that move, other Mountain States teams, such as Utah and BYU, left for the WAC while the Aggies were left out, sending them into a decades-long period of relative athletic obsoleteness. 

Even when the Aggies were eventually let into the WAC, it was with a bitter taste in the mouth as it was only in response to in-state rivals jumping to the newly formed Mountain West Conference, which had just passed over USU upon forming. Just a few years later, the same happened, as Utah State was now invited to join the Mountain West after BYU left to become independent, and Utah took off to join the then-power five PAC 12.

With Wednesday’s news, the general fear and anxiety felt across Logan largely stems from these unpleasant run-ins with conference realignments. Could this be happening yet again? The Utah State Aggies were getting passed over again, and with all the disrespect from being told you’re not pretty enough to dance. 

After all, why should the Aggies get left out after their recent run of a Mountain West Championship in football, back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in basketball, three straight MW Championships in volleyball, and a Conference Championship from their now top ten soccer team? Had they not proven they were just as capable, if not more, to compete for championships than all the teams now leaving?

Last year’s conference musical chairs left most Mountain West schools feeling, for the most part, indifferent. Teams planning a move to the PAC 12, such as San Diego State, now decided they were just fine here in the Mountain West. If anything, it provided an upside to the Mountain West as they could potentially add Oregon State and Washington State and now have one less power conference above them. Well, it turns out that San Diego State and others have changed their mind and decided they were not just fine not being excluded from the “cooler” PAC 12, even with its current makeup. 

That’s what all this boils down to, after all. Who gets an invite to the Cool Kids Club and gets the perks (mostly money) and bragging rights accompanying it? That’s what last summer’s money grab was about, and this most recent move was about. The problem is that someone forgot to tell these previously chair-less teams that this resurrected PAC 12 hype is no more than a high school theater set: it looks decent for the cheap seats, but it’s not much more than hollow frames and props once you get up close and is certainly not all that they are now wanting it to be. 

If the goal with this move was to get themselves into a seat at the high roller’s table, then they have sorely misplayed their hand because the college football world remains unmoved regarding who the “big boy” conferences are. As Dan Woken wrote for USA Today, “…in reality, all they’ve done is leave a conference that was competing with the American to be the fifth-best conference and … join a league that will be competing with the American to be the fifth-best conference.” 

This newly reimagined PAC 12 conference, whether it has six, eight, or twelve teams, needs a lot more than just poached Mountain West and American Athletic Conference (AAC) programs to restore it to the “Conference of Champions” it once touted itself to be. The revived PAC 12 conference has no different CFB Playoff rights or implications than the Mountain West. 

Whatever TV deal they now negotiate will most likely look very similar to a Mountain West TV deal; non-conference scheduling will undoubtedly be very comparable. At the end of the day, they are still considered a group of five conferences in the eyes of the world, despite the ego that drove them to make this decision in the first place. The biggest thing this new conference gets to do is pay the Mountain West $110 million in fees for leaving. 

Sure, these programs have bigger athletic budgets than most of the Mountain West, and, for the four ex-Mountain West teams, they rid themselves of the perennial bottom feeders of the conference that they contend has made the conference less competitive for them. However, the reality is that this new PAC 12 will soon find perennial freeloaders who contribute little to the competition level and yet get the same share of revenue from the conference, leaving them in the same position they were before.

For Aggie fans who have felt their blood pressure rise today on the news of being left out again, you can rest easy. This latest demonstration of the money and ego-driven world of college football will have little long-term effect on Utah State athletics. Utah State has consistently demonstrated to do more with less than any other team on the West Coast, and they will continue to do so. Utah State had less than half the athletic revenue of San Diego State from 2023 and yet has as many combined football and basketball championships in the last decade as the Aztecs. 

The Mountain West will also come out alright through all the conference turbulence. They will assuredly take their newfound 110-million-dollar war chest and go after a few AAC teams or possibly look to pull up competitive teams from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). After Idaho State’s win over Wyoming in Laramie this year and North Dakota State’s close loss to Colorado in Denver, we’ve certainly seen enough to know that there are FCS teams that can compete at a higher level, especially if given a bigger budget.

The take-home message for the Aggie faithful is that Utah State will be just fine. The Mountain West Conference will also be just fine. Both can now buy themselves a new dress so that next time they will be asked to dance because, at the end of the day, this is just one step closer to the next conference blow-up that will come in a few years when everyone once again decides they’re too cool for their conference.