The face of college football in 2024 is vastly different following the breakup of several conferences, most notably the Pac-12. And it continues to evolve.
USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington have decided to pull out of the Pac-12 and instead migrate cross country to the Big Ten while and Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah have chosen to land in the Big 12.
Then news broke that Cal and Stanford would be going to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2024. That leaves just two teams left in the Pac-12: Oregon State and Washington State.
Oregon State and Washington State have officially made a scheduling deal with the Mountain West Conference for this season. MW teams will play seven games against league opponents with another against either OSU or WSU.
This year’s matchups will not count in the MW standings and neither Pac-12 team will be eligible for the MW championship.
A merger between the MW and the two Pac-12 schools remained a possibility, either with the Pac-12 schools joining the MW or selected MW teams helping the Pac-12 reestablish itself.
The latter scenario transpired on Thursday, Sept. 12, when four MW schools — San Diego State University, Boise State, Colorado State and Fresno State — officially accepted an invitation to join the Pac-12 to raise membership, temporarily at least, to six schools in that conference (Pac-6).
The Aztecs, Broncos, Rams and Bulldogs will officially become members of the Pac-12 on July 1, 2026.
Correspondingly, membership in the Mountain West will drop to eight schools for football: UNLV, Nevada-Reno, Utah State, New Mexico, Air Force Academy, Wyoming, San Jose State and Hawaii.
“We are ecstatic to be joining the Pac-12 Conference,” SDSU director of athletics John David Wicker said. “While we are grateful to be a founding member of the Mountain West with 26 years of success in the conference, we are excited at what lies ahead with these new opportunities. We will continue to compete for conference championships on the field and to graduate leaders in the community.”
“The move to the Pac-12 is a transformative moment for our entire university, “SDSU President Adela de la Torre said. “Joining the Pac-12 opens the door to exciting partnerships and financial growth, all of which will contribute to the success of our student-athletes and the vitality of our university community. This is just the beginning — we are poised to attract even more top-tier talent, compete at the highest national level and identify new opportunities that will benefit our One SDSU community and the San Diego region.”
Oregon State and Washington State are currently operating as members of the Pac-12 as part of an NCAA two-year grace period and will continue to do so for the 2025-26 academic season before the four new members officially join. The collective six universities will collaboratively chart additional membership and other future conference considerations.
“For over a century, the Pac-12 Conference has been recognized as a leading brand in intercollegiate athletics,” league commissioner Teresa Gould stated. “We will continue to pursue bold cutting-edge opportunities for growth and progress, to best serve our member institutions and student-athletes. I am thankful to our board for their efforts to welcome Boise State University, Colorado State University, California State University Fresno, and San Diego State University to the conference. An exciting new era for the Pac-12 Conference begins today.”
As previously arranged, SDSU will play both Oregon State and Washington State this season in football, thus adding a bit of luster to the Aztecs’ schedule in 2024 and a preview of what could come.
SDSU will also play at Cal-Berkeley, a third current or former Pac-12 team, in a non-conference game on Saturday, Sept. 14 (7:30 p.m. kickoff).
Red and Black
The Aztecs didn’t fare too well in their first encounter with a Pac-12 team this season by coming out on the short end of a 21-0 loss to the Beavers in front of 25,318 fans at Snapdragon Stadium on Saturday.
Oregon State led 7-0 at halftime on a 16-yard run by Jam Griffin. The Beavers added two fourth-quarter touchdowns to round out the final score — a 15-yard run by Anthony Hankerson and a 21-yard TD catch by Bryce Caufield.
The Pacific Northwest visitors racked up a decisive 420-179 edge in total offensive yards.
Marquez Cooper, who scored two touchdowns in the Aztecs’ season opening win over Texas A&M-Commerce, was held to 53 yards on 13 carries. Freshman quarterback Danny O’Neil completed 11 of 24 passes for 107 yards and was sacked once.
Louis Brown IV had two catches for 45 yards while Ja’Shaun Poke had three catches for 25 yards. Tyler Pastula averaged 48.6 yards on seven punts with a long of 63 yards.
Tano Letuli ranked second on the team with seven tackles (behind Chris Johnson with nine tackles. Eastlake’s Trey White had four tackles.
SDSU will host Washington State Oct. 26 (7:30 p.m. kickoff). The Cougars are off to a fast 2-0 start with blowout wins over Portland State (70-30 on Aug. 31) and Texas Tech (37-16 last Saturday).
The Cougars will play at Washington this Saturday in the teams’ heated intra-state rivalry. The Huskies are also 2-0 following wins over Weber State (35-3 on Aug. 31) and Eastern Michigan (30-9 on Saturday).
The MW includes 12 teams this season. The Aztecs will play one more season in the MW before embarking on a Pac-12 schedule.
SDSU success in the MW
The Aztecs have won a Mountain West record 96 league titles (only includes sports SDSU competes in), including the most championships in each of the last three years. In the 2023-24 campaign alone, San Diego State captured six MW championships, including women’s soccer (regular season), swimming & diving, men’s golf, women’s tennis (tournament) and softball (regular season and tournament). The Aztecs also had four conference players of the year – Mac Barbara (softball, co-player), Yasmine Kabbaj (women’s tennis), Denise Castro (women’s soccer, offensive) and Alex Roberts (swimmer) – and three conference coaches of the year – Stacey Nuveman Deniz (softball), Mike Shrader (swimming) and Roland McDonald (diving).
SDSU has also been a power on the national stage as its combined .727 winning percentage in football and men’s basketball since the fall of 2010 ranks first in the country, just ahead of Ohio State (.726), Oregon (.713), Duke (.706) and Alabama (.693). San Diego State has also excelled in the professional ranks. Most recently, former Aztec men’s golfer Xander Schauffele won two of the four major championships in 2024, while former NCAA track & field champion Shanieka Ricketts (Thomas) won the silver medal in the triple jump at the Paris Olympics this summer.
