Report: Pac-12 eyes UNLV, UTSA and more for expansion; Gonzaga a possibility for CBB | News, scores, highlights, stats and rumors

As for schools like UNLV and Air Force, Vannini noted that the two are “more likely if the conference fails in its swing attempts in the East.”

The AAC is expected to push for the Air Force to join the Army and Navy and for the three military academies to be merged.

It remains unclear whether UNLV will break away from Nevada, as Oregon and Washington did with Oregon State and Washington State — the two remaining Pac-12 programs — when they joined USC and UCLA in the Big Ten.

Many of the changes focus on football because of the lucrative media rights deals associated with that sport, but one of the more interesting possibilities, according to Vannini, is that the conference could consider Gonzaga as a basketball school.

He wrote: “Although Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes told The Athletic on Saturday that football is a requirement for membership, other sources with knowledge of the league's thinking believe that is only for the next step. They do not rule out that the league could try to add a school like Gonzaga to what could be a strong basketball conference.”

The Pac-12 still has a firm deadline to secure its existence—it must have eight members by July 1, 2026, to be recognized as a conference by the NCAA. But it sounds like it has identified plenty of potential options in that effort.