Teresa Gould and the rebirth of the Pac-12

Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.

July 1 marked the first day of the 2026-27 athletic calendar, which meant a whole bunch of conference realignment moves finalized. Perhaps the biggest was with the Pac-12, a league that moved from the brink of extinction to a full membership, new identity and long-term path forward.

To better understand what the league is trying to do next, KC Smurthwaite chatted with commissioner Teresa Gould. Their conversation is below:

by KC Smurthwaite

On Interstate 680, not far from the Pac-12 offices in San Ramon, California, commissioner Teresa Gould turned on her country music playlist. And she isn’t just a listener; she said she “loves karaoke” and is willing to step up to an open microphone with little fear … if it’s the right song, of course.

Those songs set up the central truth of what she has faced since 2024, when she become the commissioner of a conference that, at the time, appeared to be on life support.

“Heartbreak. Complete heartbreak,” said Gould, who was previously a deputy commissioner for the conference and also served in senior athletics roles at several member schools. There was no attempt to soften the description. “It’s a league that I have been associated with in different roles for 25 years,” she added. “So as it was kind of unraveling in front of me, I was heartbroken, just heartbroken, and at times felt incredibly helpless.”

But the music hadn’t even started.

Gould, who is the first woman to serve as commissioner of an NCAA autonomy conference, had no traditional onboarding period, no opportunity to spend the first several months doing a grand tour of campuses and no stable foundation awaiting her arrival. She was appointed to her role several months after many of the league’s teams announced their intention to depart. Ten schools were preparing to leave within months of her start date. Oregon State and Washington State were attempting to preserve their athletic futures. The future of one of college athletics’ most recognizable brands had become a daily national debate, and nearly every decision carried legal, financial, operational and emotional consequences.

“Admittedly, there was a little bit of a Titanic situation, but it’s not something we could just stand by and watch; we knew we had to get to work,” Gould said.

Her assignment was not merely to keep the conference office operating or to protect the remnants of a century-old organization. It was to take a league with 110 years of history and determine how much of that history should serve as an anchor and how much should become a launching point.

The result is a new Pac-12 scheduled to begin competition in 2026-27 with nine full members: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State and Washington State. The new-look conference will feature familiar western rivalries, national brands and a chance to build something not burdened by the expectation of recreating the past exactly as it once was.