NCAA

Four former Gonzaga basketball players from across the spectrum of the program’s rise to national powerhouse gave the school high marks for its decision to join the Pac-12 Conference in 2026-27. The former Zags said the Pac-12 should represent a sizable step up in competition, beef up the home conference schedule, boost the school’s ability to generate revenue, including NIL, and better positions GU in the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics.

Gonzaga’s Mark Few has been named the recipient of the 2025 John R. Wooden Award’s “Legends of Coaching” Award.

Gonzaga was at the epicenter of the conference realignment world on Tuesday, formally joining the reconstructed Pac-12 Conference as its eighth member, and only nonfootball member. With its future secured, it could be a while before Gonzaga’s name resurfaces in conference realignment and expansion conversations – a drastic change from the past decade-plus, when the Spokane school and its powerhouse men’s basketball program were frequently in the middle of realignment rumors, courted by multiple conferences in different time zones.

In the high-stakes musical chairs game of conference realignment, the stripped-down Pac-12 landed a globally recognized jewel in Zags hoops, an anchor program in the region, and a long-standing national brand.

Not long after Gonzaga and its fledgling athletic department joined the West Coast Conference in 1979, the school’s longtime athletic director, Mike Roth, began hearing murmurs.

If Idaho had to suffer a bad beat in a frustrating 28-26 loss at University of California Davis a week ago, conditions could not be much better for the Vandals (3-2, 0-1 in the Big Sky Conference) to get well this week.

Whether the next move comes in 24 hours or 24 days, the conference needs a win. And there's only one school available that can offer a blowout victory.

PULLMAN – Let’s get one thing out of the way before we talk about the tackling issues Washington State faced in a blowout loss to No. 25 Boise State on Saturday night.

As much as Eastern Washington’s 52-49 loss to Montana came down to anything on Saturday, fourth downs were crucial.

As rivalries emerge, fans of Oregon State and WSU will doubtlessly crow that in former years their schools belonged to a power conference and that Boise State was once a junior college. But the Broncos proved in many ways on Saturday they will be the class of the new conference.

BOISE, Idaho — Twenty years from now, these Washington State players might sit down and tell their kids about the time they played against Ashton Jeanty, the Boise State running back who ran all over them one night in 2024. They’ll talk about his power and speed, his elusiveness and quickness, the way he broke free for several huge rushes.

DAVIS, Calif. – The Idaho Vandals, again down a quarterback, were tasked with climbing out of an 11-point deficit Saturday night.

Ashton Jeanty 

BOISE – In a game largely defined by the 259-yard rushing clinic from Boise State sensation Ashton Jeanty, most of the plays and moments Washington State would prefer to have back from Saturday night’s loss at Albertsons Stadium came on long, hard-fought runs, where it wasn’t uncommon for the junior to break anywhere from three to seven tackles, pinballing between white jerseys on his way to the end zone.

A rumbling rushing score on a third-and-10 by Jared Taylor.

Boise State’s star running back tore through WSU for 259 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 26 carries, breaking free for touchdown runs of 64 and 59 yards.

Since Texas and Oklahoma fractured the college sports world three years ago when they announced their intention to join the SEC, 33 schools have changed conferences. That’s nearly a quarter of the FBS, with more to come.

Through five weeks, the Huskies' brand of football is a failure to finish, a dramatic reversal for a team that went 8-0 in one-score games in 2023.

The Pac-12's underlying strategy is fairly sound, but it has (badly) lost the narrative this week. The conference appears to be flailing as it seeks an eighth full-time member.