The remade Pac-12 is introducing a scheduling wrinkle in 2026.
The conference announced Wednesday night that it will have a flexible schedule for the final week of the football regular season. Week 13’s matchups will officially be decided after Week 12, though they were tentatively announced on Wednesday night with Boise State visiting Utah State, Texas State at Colorado State, San Diego State at Fresno State and Oregon State at Washington State.
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With eight teams in the conference, each team plays seven conference games by playing everyone else once. A repeat matchup is needed for an eighth conference game. And with that in mind, the Pac-12 said it’s introducing the flex scheduling so it can “retain the right to adjust matchups based on the best interests of the league, including College Football Playoff considerations at that time.”
Simply put, if the Pac-12 has a chance to bolster a team’s playoff position late in the season, it’s going to do that by tweaking the schedule.
The schedule can’t change en masse, however. The four home teams listed above will play at home no matter what in Week 13 to ensure they have a fourth conference game at their own stadiums. The only teams that can be moved around are the road teams. And the Pac-12 said it will make any changes no later than the Sunday after Week 12 concludes.
Oregon State and Washington State had competed in a two-team Pac-12 for the past two seasons after they got hung out to dry when the conference effectively dissolved in the summer of 2024. Four teams went to the Big Ten, while four others went to the Big 12, and Stanford and Cal joined the ACC.
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Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State have all joined the Pac-12 from the Mountain West while Texas State came over from the Sun Belt. The Mountain West will have nine members in 2026 as Northern Illinois joins as a football-only member.
The eight-team Pac-12 will have its games on CBS, CBS Sports Network, USA and the CW in 2026 and beyond. The conference title game is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 4, on CBS.
