The new version of the Pac-12 conference has now landed a powerhouse basketball school, Gonzaga University, that will join in 2026.
After Fresno State joined the Pac-12 on Sept. 12, Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State and Utah State followed suit. Oregon State and Washington State remained in the Pac-12 after the original conference split up.
With Gonzaga now moving to the Pac-12, it completes a full conference for basketball and baseball, but it still leaves holes for football since Gonzaga doesn’t have a football team.
Eight schools are needed to complete a football conference, according to NCAA rules.
What does Gonzaga’s move mean for Fresno State?
Gonzaga leaving the West Coast Conference (WAC) and entering the Pac-12 is one of the biggest moves that the conference could have done.
However many questions still remain about Fresno State’s financial commitments because of the move. This includes the $17 million exit fee that Fresno State owes the Mountain West.
Before the news, the conference was showing little promise. It was mainly composed of Mountain West Conference (MWC) teams.
Then, what was already bad looked to be even worse. The Pac-12 attempted to get the University of Memphis, the University of South Florida and Tulane University into its conference but failed.
This would’ve been a stellar move from the Pac-12 to add three big powerhouse schools coming from the American Athletic Conference.
In another blow, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) declined to move to the Pac-12 after an offer. In return for staying in the MWC, UNLV will receive $10 million to $14 million plus an additional $1.5 million to $1.8 million each year according to the Sports Business Journal.
When it all seemed to be going horribly for the Pac-12, Gonzaga flipped the narrative around.
There is no doubt that Gonzaga will bring in competition, media and broadcast deals, more fan attendance and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals to the conference.
Fresno State fan attendance will spike
In the 2022-23 basketball season, Gonzaga brought in a total of 102,333 in fan attendance while Fresno State only brought in 70,874 total fans to the Save Mart Center which holds 15,596 fans per game.
With the Pac-12 label being printed on jerseys and the court, fans have already seen excitement for the change in the conference.
Now, Gonzaga will come to the Save Mart Center in 2026 and the Fresno State basketball teams may see a big spike in attendance, bringing in more revenue than they have in the past years.
More media and broadcast deals for Fresno State
Joining the Pac-12 already came with broadcast perks for Fresno State, with the Pac-12 having its network station. With Gonzaga now in the conference, more opportunities will open up for bigger deals.
In 2021, Gonzaga reached a peak of 3.1 million viewers when they played Duke University on ESPN. This was the highest-watched regular-season college basketball game since 2019.
In the past, Gonzaga has been broadcast on CBS, CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports.
These big media platforms will likely continue to broadcast Gonzaga games and Pac-12 matchups that will include Fresno State games, thus bringing in broadcast revenue.
Fresno State will get more NIL money because of Gonzaga joining
In the basketball world, right now, Fresno State appears to be the weakest team in the Pac-12, alongside Oregon State.
The Fresno State men’s basketball team has shown no promise throughout the past seasons under former Head Coach Justin Hutson. Last season the team ended the season 12-21 overall and 4-14 in conference play.
Now the competition has been raised to a higher standard with Gonzaga in the mix.
Fresno State basketball has already struggled in the Mountain West Conference so competing against Gonzaga will be nearly impossible considering Fresno State has less NIL money to gain high-caliber athletes.
But in the grand scheme of things, this may turn into a positive outcome.
Head Coach Vance Walberg has already seen money be donated since his hiring.
“We actually had one donor give us half a million [dollars] a week ago which was really really nice,” Walberg said in a media press conference on Sept. 30. “I’ll be honest with you, the way it is nowadays, the more money you have the better team you are going to get.”
Students, fans and donors want to see Fresno State succeed in sports, and joining the Pac-12 will push donors to contribute more money to help Fresno State compete with Gonzaga.
“We lost out on four or five players,” Walberg said. “If we had a couple hundred thousand [dollars] more at the time we could’ve got [them].”
More NIL money from donors means it increases the chances of high-caliber athletes to come to Fresno State and it will allow them to compete in the Pac-12 conference.
At the moment, Gonzaga may be far advanced in competition but it will entice more donors to give money to see Fresno State put up a fight in its matchups.
Fresno State’s unanswered questions
While Gonzaga joining the Pac-12 seems to be an advantage for Fresno State’s athletic revenue, there are still a lot of unanswered financial questions.
Because Fresno State joined the Pac-12, they are now obligated to pay $17 million in exit fees to the MWC.
Additionally, at the time that the Pac-12 was splitting, the MWC implemented poaching fees that would prevent the Pac-12 from gaining any Mountain West schools. If broken, which it was, the Pac-12 would owe $10 million per school.
Although the Pac-12 will pay the poaching fees, Fresno State will still have to pay the exit fees. The big question is, how will Fresno State accomplish this?
A school that is already suffering from Save Mart Center debt is now in even greater debt.
In a media press conference, San Diego State Athletic Director John David Wicker said where the exit fee money won’t be taken out of.
“We will work through, you know, where the different pots of money are that are paying for the exit fees,” Wicker said. “I could tell you this, it won’t be university funds, it won’t be student fees, it won’t be state money or anything like that.”
The Pac-12 is expected to help the Mountain West schools pay their exit fees.
This may take years for an already-in-debt Fresno State to pay its exit fee, but with the Pac-12 Conference revenue and Gonzaga getting more eyes on the conference, the time may be cut slightly shorter.
