Colorado State University’s move to the Pac-12 Conference became official Wednesday, July 1, offering a new level of visibility for not only the Rams’ athletic teams but the school’s academic and research activities as well.
CSU and Boise State, Fresno State, Gonzaga, San Diego State, Texas State and Utah State universities are joining current members Oregon State and Washington State to rejuvenate the conference.
The original Pacific-12 Conference effectively ended as a major “Power Five” league on Aug. 2, 2024. While the mass exodus was triggered in 2022 when the University of Southern California and the University of California, Los Angeles announced their departure for the Big 10, the final blow occurred when 10 schools left for other leagues ahead of the 2024-2025 academic year. In a span of a few days in August 2023, Colorado left to return to the Big 12, while Oregon and Washington followed USC and UCLA to the Big 10. Arizona, Arizona State and Utah also defected to the Big 12, and Stanford and Cal later announced their move to the ACC, formerly the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“Today is a historic day for Colorado State, not just in athletics, but the whole university,” Athletic Director John Weber said in a prepared statement. “I want to thank Commissioner Teresa Gould and her team for their vision and leadership in creating the new Pac-12. We look forward to this journey in joining like-minded universities and athletic departments. These are exciting times for CSU athletics, our great university, the Fort Collins community and state of Colorado.”
CSU became a charter member of the Mountain West Conference in 1998 and was part of that league for 28 years until it announced its intention to become part of the rebuilt Pac-12 on Sept. 12, 2024. Three months later, CSU and Utah State universities sued the Mountain West, claiming that the athletics league that both schools planned to abandon was attempting to impose improper exit fees on its departing members.
Athletically, the Pac-12 era officially starts in mid-August when CSU’s soccer team kicks off its season. The football team opens its season Sept. 5 against rival University of Wyoming at 4 p.m., and will play its Pac-12 opener Oct. 3 against Oregon State as part of Homecoming.
“This opportunity to move into the Pac-12 wasn’t just about moving into a new league,” CSU president Amy Parsons said in an interview with CSU journalist Tony Phifer. “This was really about CSU’s opportunity to build this new league almost from scratch. You almost never get an opportunity like this. It’s really a generational opportunity for those of us here at CSU. It’s an opportunity to build on a historic legacy of the Pac-12. It’s a storied league, and we get to be part of it.
“It’s also a reflection of CSU,” she said. “We deserve to be on a national stage. We deserve to be in a conference like the Pac-12. We deserve to be on national television and be able to tell our story to millions more people. And the Pac-12’s going to really allow us to do that.”
She said CSU has earned that visibility “through years of investment in academics and research and athletics. We’re a university on the rise in every way you look at it. Our academics continue to get better, our national rankings, our impact through our research, as well as our athletics. So, with the work that we’ve been doing at CSU for so long, we’ve earned this opportunity to be on the national stage.”
Ultimately, Weber said, “when you look at the purpose of college athletics, it’s really to market the university.”
Higher education itself is competitive, Parsons said, “to compete for students, compete for faculty talent, compete for research partners and national reputation. So, we have to use every tool we have to be competitive. People don’t know to come to CSU unless they know we exist, unless they know how great we are, unless they see our trajectory, unless they see how great Fort Collins is. This is going to allow us to be exposed to millions more people than we were before.”
Collaboration exists on many levels, she said.
“While I’m working with the other presidents at the Pac-12, John’s working with the athletics directors, our provosts are working together, our vice presidents for research are working together, our visitors’ bureaus are also working together,” Parsons said. “Visit Fort Collins is actively out there recruiting in these new places around the country that are going to be seeing us and coming here for the first time and saying, ‘If you’re going to choose one away game on your schedule, come to CSU, come to Fort Collins, we’re a great place to be.’ I’m really excited about the economic impact we’re going to be able to have in Fort Collins with Pac-12.”
The visibility matters for CSU’s teaching and research missions, she said.
“You can see it in our national rankings; you can see it in what we’re building here on campus,” Parsons said. “We’re building the nation’s best veterinary teaching hospital. We’re leaders in laser fusion with the construction of a new world-class facility; engineering; number one in the country in occupational therapy; agriculture – all of these areas that we’re excelling in at CSU. We’re a major research powerhouse, and I believe that we’re the leading Western land-grant university and a place on the rise.
“People need to see us. This provides us such a tremendous opportunity to really put Fort Collins and CSU on display, and it’s just going to add fuel to that trajectory and that momentum that we’re already experiencing as a university.”
A study commissioned by the nonprofit Visit Fort Collins and conducted by Tourism Economics, a division of Philadelphia-based Oxford Economics Co., found that CSU’s Canvas Stadium had a community economic impact of $60 million in 2025, resulting from more than 165,000 visitors whose spending benefited Fort Collins hotels, restaurants, bars and retail shops.
The $220 million stadium opened in 2017 on CSU’s campus and seats 36,500 people.
The researchers found that 41% of total Canvas Stadium visitors stayed overnight in 2025, and that attendees’ direct spending impact of $38.4 million generated a total economic impact of $60.1 million in the local economy. This supported 1,250 total jobs and $5.3 million in state and local tax revenues.
Of the total attendees for all events held there last year, it found, 57% originated from outside the local economy. They spent $28.6 million locally, including $12.3 million on lodging, $5.4 million on retail purchases, $4.5 million on entertainment and recreation, $3.7 on food and beverages, and $2.6 million on transportation.
Of those attending seven Rams football games, the researchers said, 42% stayed overnight, while 45% of commencement attendees stayed overnight, and 34% of the Professional Bull Riders audience stayed overnight.
With the exposure, Parsons said, “I think we’re going to see a lot more people coming to Fort Collins, and that’s going to translate into increased enrollment and students wanting to come to school here, to us being able to recruit faculty and researchers here. And I think it’s going to be tremendous for the city of Fort Collins.”
Parsons called the move to the Pac-12 “a five-year, 10-year commitment to sending us in a new trajectory. So, we can’t expect everything is going to be solved in year one – all the revenue, all the exposure, enrollment, all those things in year one. I think, in year one, it’s going to be maybe millions more people turning their heads and paying attention to CSU who didn’t otherwise know CSU.”
What matters most, she said, “is the impact that we’re going to see over time that matters. … This is a long-term play for CSU; this is going to be an impact that we see year over year as we continue that national strength.”
