Opinion: Wyoming Lucked out by Being Left out of the Pac-12

Photo by Luke Melinkovich

Following the 2023 NCAA football season, a phenomenon known as “conference realignment” shook up the game of football as we know it. One of the “power” conferences within college football, the PAC-12, dispersed all but two of its teams into other conferences, completely changing the dynamic of the game. 

Previously, there was what was known as the “Power 5”, or stronger conferences within FBS Division 1, and there were the “Group of 5”, less competitive conferences. With the fall-apart of the PAC-12, a Power 5 conference, it left four large power conferences and still five smaller “Group of 5” conferences.  

This change has caused a huge dynamic shift with large implications across the world of college football, and there are very mixed opinions on how it has impacted the game we all know and love. But how has this impacted UW? 

Well, initially, back in 2023 and 2024 when this was all happening, it didn’t change much. Wyoming is in one of the previously mentioned “Group of 5” conferences, the Mountain West. No changes were made to the conference initially, still very intact as one of the strongest smaller conferences in the country, featuring household names such as the Cowboys, Boise State, Utah State, San Diego State, and many more. 

That was until this year. The NCAA allows a two-year “grace period” for a conference to attempt to recover before being fully de-commissioned. The PAC-12, still with two teams active within the conference, Oregon State and Washington State, took full advantage of this. After being non-operational for 2024 and 2025, the PAC-12 reformed their conference and resumed a football season this year in 2026, taking away many of the teams which formerly made up the Mountain West. 

According to most formal reports, it is unlikely that Wyoming ever received an invitation to move conferences and join the PAC-12 with schools such as Colorado State, Boise State, San Diego State, and others who did make the transition. 

Now where am I going with this? My take is that UW got lucky by staying in the Mountain West. The Mountain West has reformed and completed its new-look conference much more effectively than the weak effort that was put into reforming the PAC-12. 

Currently, for football, the Mountain West has 10 teams, including strong new editions such as North Dakota State, a team that was leading the conference for a good portion of the beginning of the season. 10 teams allow for a strong, diverse conference schedule, unlike what we are seeing out of the dichotomy that is the PAC-12. The PAC-12 has only eight teams, forcing them to play a shorter, “round robin” style conference slate. 

Within the PAC-12, there is also a clear separation in quality between the top of the table and the bottom. Teams like Oregon State who played in the PAC-12 previously, before conference re-alignment, are beating up the new additions, and the conference is seeing a high level of polarization.  

Since the conference has seen such a downgrade in quality, they have also lost their status as a “power conference”. This means that teams in the Mountain West still have the same opportunity for a bid in the College Football Playoff. With better organization and level competition in the Mountain West, I think it is a much better fit for UW at the moment. 

Our rivalry with CSU is also still intact, we are beginning new rivalries with new schools in the Mountain West, we potentially have a chance to make a bowl game for the first time in a few years, and the conference is alive and well. As a Cowboys fan myself, I feel no envy for the issues going on over in the incomplete “PAC-8”, and fans as a whole should feel comfortable about the spot we are in right now, regardless of current performance or uncertainty.