Source: Boise State among 4 to join Pac-12

The four schools are set to announce as early as Thursday that they plan to leave the Mountain West Conference to join the Pac-12, sources confirmed to ESPN.

Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Fresno State have applied for Pac-12 membership beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, sources said.

They will join Oregon State and Washington State, the two remaining schools in the conference after the league collapsed last summer.

Schools departing from the Mountain West bylaw would have to pay an exit fee of about $18 million with two years' notice, which the four schools would pay, a source said. (That number will rise to $36 million with one year's notice.)

The Pac-12 is expected to be in a position to help schools with exit fees, in part, as members hold on to media-rights distribution fees and other conference assets. The conference will pay an additional $43 million in poaching fees, as outlined in this year's intra-conference agreement that allowed both OSU and WSU to play six Mountain West opponents.

Once those four additions are confirmed, the conference still needs to add two more to reach the NCAA minimum requirement. The conference is in the first of a two-year grace period provided by NCAA bylaws for existing below the minimum in the event of an exit.

News of the four schools set to join the Pac-12 was first reported by Yahoo Sports.