Boise State conference change came quickly. Will it help in chase for football playoffs?

At the start of the week, Boise State Athletic Director Jeramiah Dickey had no idea he’d be standing behind a podium announcing the school’s move to a retooled Pac-12 Conference by Thursday.

“It escalated over the last 48 hours,” Dickey said Thursday afternoon at a news conference.

Boise State announced early in the day that it and fellow Mountain West universities Fresno State, Colorado State and San Diego State would join the Pac-12’s lonely two leftovers — Oregon State and Washington State — in a new Pac-12 starting with the 2026-27 academic year.

The announcement sent rumbles through the ever-changing college athletics landscape, with the presumed-dead Pac-12 enjoying a rebirth.

The Pac-12 experienced a massive exodus at the end of last season, with 10 of its 12 schools bolting for other conferences, leaving behind Washington State and Oregon State. Now the Mountain West will become a reeling conference.

“It’s going to be an uncomfortable two years,” Dickey acknowledged.

But how did it all come together, and why?

Why did the deal happen so quickly?

Dickey said conversations between the Pac-12 and the four departing schools didn’t begin until the Mountain West’s discussions with Washington State and Oregon State on a scheduling alliance concluded.

That alliance, which is in effect for 2024, led to Mountain West teams putting those schools on the football schedule. The two groups didn’t agree on extending the agreement to 2025, with the deadline for that having come and gone on Sept. 1.

That means conversations about the new Pac-12 Conference have not reached two weeks old, Dickey said, but things really intensified over two days this week.

“I’m very analytical when it comes to decisions like that, and obviously, conversations were taking place about whether or not we feel this is best,” Dickey said. “Along with the ADs talking to each other, we got to a comfortable place (Wednesday) night when the term sheet was signed.”

That term sheet will offer Boise State the chance to get a new media rights deal, which Dickey said could bring in more money “than we currently have where we’re at.”

Does this bring opportunity for Boise State?

The newly imagined Pac-12 isn’t your parents’ Pac-12. Or even your Pac-12, for that matter. It won’t include UCLA or USC, or Cal or Stanford, or Washington or Oregon. So what’s the benefit? Will there still be more prestige and eventually a better shot at a College Football Playoff spot?

Dickey was adamant that the move would benefit all 18 sports programs at Boise State and could even lead to the addition of other sports, such as baseball and wrestling, in a few years.

But the big factor in conference realignment is always football.

Despite producing some quality teams over the past decade, the Mountain West hasn’t sent a team to a New Year’s Six bowl since Boise State managed it in 2014. That’s not so much a knock on Boise State but more on other teams in the Mountain West.

Of course, the Pac-12 barely cracked the old College Football Playoff. And it certainly wasn’t Oregon State or Washington State doing it. Washington made the playoffs last season to snap a six-year drought in which no Pac-12 teams made it.

The big benefit likely comes on the bottom end rather than the top end. ESPN’s 2023 SP+ rankings — which ranks teams based on their efficiency — ranked three Mountain West teams among the bottom 11 in the country, according to reporting from The Athletic: Hawaii (123rd), New Mexico (124th) and Nevada (132nd).

The four Mountain West teams heading to the reimagined Pac-12, plus the two leftovers, ranked the following out of 133 schools:

• Oregon State - 19th

• Boise State - 44th

• Washington State - 50th

• Fresno State - 60th

• Colorado State - 98th

• San Diego State - 104th

Dickey said that Boise State, along with the other five schools, will have a voice at the table when deciding who else to try to get to join the conference. At least two teams will need to join by July 1, 2026, for the conference to meet the minimum NCAA and Football Bowl Subdivision requirements of eight teams for conference recognition.

Dickey said the six schools revitalizing the conference are “like-minded” in that they strive for “competitive excellence.”

“We have to be different. We have to think differently,” Dickey said. “There are going to be other revenue opportunities in terms of when we schedule our events and what that looks like with this new media deal. We need partners that are going to buy into that vision, that we are not a finished product.”

There’s still a chance to add some quality schools to the league, which ultimately could help the football champion of the new Pac-12 land what is the fifth automatic conference spot in the playoff. Of course, the playoff format also could change again down the road. Schools being discussed so far, and their 2023 SP+ rankings, include UTSA (48th), Memphis (55th) and Tulane (59th).

“In my opinion, we have the next five years to determine the next 30 for us,” Dickey said. “We have to double down, and I’m going to always bet on us.”