Pac-12 Conference to Have 9 Members in Wrestling for 2026-27 Season
4/1/2026 9:00:00 AM | Wrestling
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Pac-12 Conference announced Wednesday the addition of four new affiliate members in wrestling, giving the conference nine teams beginning with the 2026-27 season.
Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State and South Dakota State will all join the Pac-12 as affiliate members in wrestling. The four join Northern Illinois, who announced in October they would be joining the conference as an affiliate, giving the Pac-12 five new teams for the 2026-27 season.
The incoming five programs join Cal Poly, Oregon State, Little Rock and Cal State Bakersfield in the league. The Mustangs and those three other schools have been the only teams competing in the conference in wrestling the past two years after Arizona State left for the Big 12 and Stanford became a member of the ACC in 2024, leaving the Pac-12 with just four teams.
As a result of Wednesday’s announcement, total wrestling membership for the Pac-12 now meets the minimum requirement of six members for the sport in order to retain NCAA automatic qualification for its annual league champions, a requirement the conference was given a grace period for from the NCAA the past two seasons while only having four teams. The nine programs also give the Pac-12 its largest wrestling membership since having nine schools during the 2008-09 season.
"We're excited to welcome these outstanding programs to the Pac-12 and look forward to the energy and competition that they will bring,” Cal Poly wrestling head coach Jon Sioredas said. “It's a great step forward for the conference and an exciting opportunity for all of the wrestling programs involved."
The new Pac-12’s nine wrestling teams combined to send 31 wrestlers to this year’s NCAA Championships in Cleveland, tied for the fourth most among conferences based on 2026-27 membership. Over the last five years, the nine Pac-12 wrestling programs have sent 166 total wrestlers to the NCAA Championships with 34 All-Americans, both fourth-most among conferences. Additionally, over that period of the past five years, the nine schools have combined to finish in the Top 25 as a team in the NCAA Championships nine times.
You can read the full release from the Pac-12 Conference HERE.
