Editing Pac-12 Conference (section)

{{Short description|American collegiate athletics conference}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Infobox sports league
| name            = Pac-12 Conference
| color           = #004B91; {{box-shadow border|a|#000007|2px}}
| font_color      = white
| image           = Pac 12 Horizontal.png
| title           = 
| logo            = Pac-12 logo.svg
| logo_size       = 150px
| founded         = {{Start date and age|1915}}<br/>(as [[Pacific Coast Conference]])<br/>{{Start date and age |1959}}<br/>(as [[AAWU]])
| association     = [[NCAA]]
| division        = [[NCAA Division I|Division I]]
| subdivision     = [[NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision|FBS]]
| teams           = 2 (8 in 2026&ndash;27)
| sports          = 5
| mens            = 3
| womens          = 2
| region          = [[Pacific Northwest]]
| formerly        = Pacific Coast Conference<br/>(PCC, 1915–1959)<br/>Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU, 1959–1968)<br/>Pacific-8 (1968–1978)<br/>Pacific-10 (1978–2011)
| headquarters    = [[San Ramon, California]], U.S.
| commissioner    = Teresa Gould
| since           = March 1, 2024
| TV              = [[CW Sports]], [[Fox Sports]]
| website         = {{URL|https://pac-12.com/}}
| map             = Pac-12 Conference states.svg
| map_size        = 250
}}

The '''Pac-12 Conference''' is a collegiate [[List of NCAA conferences|athletic conference]] in the [[Western United States]]. It participates at the [[National Collegiate Athletic Association]] (NCAA) [[NCAA Division I|Division I]] level for all sports, and its [[College football|football]] teams compete in the [[NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision|Football Bowl Subdivision]] (FBS), the highest level of NCAA football competition. The conference currently comprises two members, [[Oregon State University]] and [[Washington State University]].

The modern Pac-12 Conference formed after the disbanding of the [[Pacific Coast Conference]] (PCC), the principal members of which founded the '''Athletic Association of Western Universities''' ('''AAWU''') in 1959. The conference previously went by the names '''Big Five''', '''Big Six''', '''Pacific-8''', and '''Pacific-10'''. The Pac-12 moniker was adopted in 2011 with the addition of [[University of Colorado Boulder|Colorado]] and [[University of Utah|Utah]].

Nicknamed the "Conference of Champions", the Pac-12 has won more NCAA national championships in team sports than any other conference in history.<ref>{{cite web |title=Conference of Champions |url=https://pac-12.com/champions |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190621170512/https://pac-12.com/champions |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 21, 2019 |website=Pac-12 |access-date=June 1, 2023}}</ref> [[University of Washington|Washington]]'s national title in women's rowing in 2017 was the 500th NCAA championship won by a Pac-12 school.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pac-12.com/article/2017/05/26/washingtons-ncaa-championship-makes-pac-12-first-500-ncaa-titles|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170528163709/http://pac-12.com/article/2017/05/26/washingtons-ncaa-championship-makes-pac-12-first-500-ncaa-titles|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 28, 2017|title=Washington's NCAA Championship makes Pac-12 the first to 500 NCAA titles|website=Pac-12|language=en|access-date=July 9, 2017}}</ref> The Pac-12 holds a 200-plus championship lead over the second-place conference.

On August 2, 2024, 10 of its 12 members [[2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment|departed from the conference]]. The Pac-12 is operating as a two-team conference through the 2025–26 academic year, sponsoring five sports—football, men's and women's track and field, women's gymnastics and men's wrestling. In 2026, the Pac-12 will expand to eight members with the addition of five schools from the [[Mountain West Conference]] and one from the [[West Coast Conference]].<ref name=":0" />