Candidates to Expand PAC -12: Texas State Bobcats – Sports Illustrated

The restored PAC-12 has eight members enrolled for the 2026-27 athletics season: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Washington State and the State of Utah.

The conference must attract at least another member of football before 2026 to reach the minimum of eight NCAA teams in order to qualify as a FBS conference. Gonzaga does not have a football program.

PAC-12, which poaches five teams from Mountain West and Gonzaga from the West Coast Conference, is expected to add between one and six additional members in the coming weeks and months.

As the conference is redirecting salaries, SI’s Boise State Broncos examines schools related to PAC-12 in various reports.

We have already covered the tigers in Memphis, North Texas medium green, rice owls, state hornets of Sacramento, Gales of St. Mary and South Florida. We will now head to the Sun Belt conference to break down Texas State Bobcats.

Location: San Marcos, Texas

Current Conference: Belt conference

Enrollment: 40 678

Donation: $ 410 million

Budget for athletics: 37 853 450 dollars

Football Stadium: UFCU stadium (28,000 capacity)

Basketball Arena: Fear Arena (10 411 Capacity)

The rapid rise of the Texas State from FCS, followed by the potential membership of the PAC-12, is opening the eyes.

Bobcats moved to FBS in 2012 and enjoyed minimal success until the arrival of the head coach GJ Kinne. KIN has directed the State of Texas for the next season of eight winners and recently agreed to a new seven-year contract worth $ 2 million a year, one of the richest deals in the 5 group.

The UFCU stadium received a facelift in 2012 and is a compact, modern place. Texas State also has a quality basketball facility in Strahan Arena, which was to host a presidential debate in 2024, which was eventually canceled.

Football and men’s basketball pay the bills, but Texas state has a strong baseball program that will appeal to the three -time World Series Champion at Oregon College. Bobcats came within three outs to win a regional in 2022 in Stanford.

San Marcos, a classic college city, is about an hour away from Austin and San Antonio. The trip to Houston takes less than three hours on the Interstate 10.

Sun Belt also has a low buying of about $ 5 million, making Texas State a cheap supplement for PAC-12.

The best arguments in the state of Texas are more recently about what could be than what has been achieved.

In addition to the football titles of Division II in 1981-82, Bobcats have no experience to success in football and men’s basketball.

Texas State has significantly increased its investments in athletics over the last 15 years, but Bobcats will need to give even more money to compete with the large cost of PAC-12 in Oregon ($ 87.8 million), the state of Washington (83 , $ 7 million), San Diego ($ 67.2 million) and Colorado State ($ 61.2 million).

While the school is in the desired place, Texas is not widely covered by major media in the big cities of Texas.

On the same day, the PAC-12 announced the addition of Gonzaga, Texas again reaffirmed its commitment to the solar belt in a statement. According to numerous reports, the Mountain West was in a difficult pursuit of Texas, but Bobcats passed.

Why did Texas refuse MWC? Maybe Bobcats were not ready for a dramatic move. Or maybe they felt that a better offer was just around the corner.

Texas State of PAC-12 has been seriously buzzing in the last month. SI Boise State Broncos thinks it has a strong chance of Texas State to be in the PAC-12 for the 2026 football season.