The conference realignment of 2023 left Oregon State and Washington State to rebuild the PAC-12 from the ashes of all their other conference members leaving. They have started that process by adding Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State.
NCAA rules require a conference to have eight member schools, and to fill out a whole conference schedule and prevent from going under that eight-team threshold if schools choose to leave in the next wave of realignment, most conferences try to have ten or more schools. So here are some options on how to somewhat realistically get the PAC-12 to those magic numbers in College Football 25.
The “All-State” Option
All five Mountain West members that the PAC-12 has added all have “State” in their name just like Oregon State and Washington State. The remaining “State” school that could be added is San Jose State, which due to their large media market is a school I could see the PAC-12 targeting. Texas State has been in talks to join the MWC, PAC-12, and American Athletic Conference, so definitely could see them moving to the PAC-12, and geographically would fit. While in real life I do not see Arizona State going back to the PAC-12 as a realistic possibility, in the video game they would be a good fit geographically and competitively, as well as being needed to get the league to 10 teams.
The American Athletic Conference Option
While in real life all the AAC schools released a statement saying they are staying put, the College Football Video Game does not know that statement exists. Memphis and Tulane are by far the best two Group of Five schools not in a power conference and are both in major media markets. UTSA’s program has also been on the rise, is in a major media market, and makes the most sense geographically to add. USF was also rumored to be a target by the PAC-12, but geographically does not make sense. Rice, North Texas, and Tulsa would be better geographical adds in you wanted to add more teams from the American.
The ACC Option
The fact that California and Stanford, two schools on the Pacific Coast, play in the Atlantic Coast Conference might be one of the craziest things I have ever seen. While it would take the ACC having a PAC-12-type disbanding by its members for Cal and Stanford to go back to their old conference, this is a video game, so TV rights deals and academic standards do not exist as they do in real life. The PAC-12 has also tried to target SMU, so having them come to the PAC-12 with their current ACC counterparts seems like a good solution to get the league to 10 teams.
The Nevada Schools Option
Similar to the AAC schools releasing a statement saying they were staying put, UNLV said they would be staying put in the MWC as well. The big hangup for UNLV seems to be that the state of Nevada wants both their schools to be in the same conference, so if you want to honor that, bring Nevada along with them and the problem is solved. While this is a College Football video game, I think the Nevada schools would be a great add for basketball as well, and could potentially get Gonzaga to join the league like it was rumored they might.
How to Backfill the MWC
Both the All-State and Nevada options would put the Mountain West at under eight schools, meaning at least two more schools would have to join the league. New Mexico State and UTEP are the two schools that make the most sense geographically and have been rumored to be trying to join the league. Louisiana Tech was previously a member of the Western Athletic Conference, so putting them in the Mountain West would have them back with other WAC members Hawaii and San Jose State currently in the MWC. Sam Houston State could also be a fit geographically, or Texas State if you don’t already have them in the PAC-12