The Pac-12, a once-forgotten conference, is now resurging across many sports. Wrestling is the latest to follow that trend.
Starting next year, the previously four-team Pac-12 Wrestling conference will now be expanding to nine schools, according to an announcement made Wednesday, April 1 by the Pac-12.
The new members entering will be Air Force, Northern Colorado, North Dakota State and South Dakota State. Northern Illinois, previously announced in October to be joining the conference, will round out the five new additions for the 2026-27 season.
“When you put all nine teams in and take a step back and look at it, I mean, we’re going to be one of the strongest conferences moving forward,” Head Coach Jon Sioredas said.
All four of the newly announced additions will be departing from the Big-12 Conference, while Northern Illinois is coming from the Mid-Atlantic Conference (MAC).
These five will join current members Cal Poly, Oregon State, Little Rock and Cal State Bakersfield, who have been leading the conference after the departure of Arizona State to the Big-12 and Stanford to the ACC in 2024.
Next year will mark the Pac-12’s largest team count since having nine schools in the 2008-2009 season.
“I think having a deeper conference provides guys more ability to steal spots,” Sioredas said. “If we get a kid that gets hot at the right time, and gets fourth in our conference and steals a bid he’s going to NCAA’s. It just provides more opportunities for our guys that are right on the bubble.”
After having just one home conference match this past season, that number will increase to four next season, according to Sioredas.
Although it will now be a much more competitive conference, the new additions put the Pac-12 back over the six-team threshold that allows conference champions to automatically qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
After ASU and Stanford left, the Pac-12 was given a two-year grace period by the NCAA in which conference champions would still qualify even though they were below the threshold as a four-team conference.
Based on next year’s membership, the conference tied for the fourth most wrestlers competing at the 2026 NCAA Championships with 31. The current four teams sent 14 wrestlers, while the five new teams sent 17 wrestlers to Cleveland for the NCAA’s.
Two of those 31 reached All-American status, as Little Rock’s Stephen Little finished in third (197 pounds) and Air Force’s Carter Nogle took fifth (141 pounds). Over the last five years, the nine teams have combined for 34 All-American awards – arguably the most prestigious achievement in collegiate wrestling.
With a four-team conference, Cal Poly put a lot of focus on individual matches at the conference championships. Now, Sioredas explained that when the postseason rolls around next March, the expansion will allow his team to focus more on themselves rather than gameplanning for individual matches.
“It’s not going to be so tight, where one exchange or one match is to make it or break it,” he said. “It’s going to be a much more fun tournament.”