Things have been shaking up in the PAC-12 conference in college football. The once-acclaimed conference fell to near-dispersal due to conference realignments. From 12 to 2, 10 schools moved to different conferences, hoping for better media coverage and monetary deals. While the conference is slowly rebuilding itself, we’re curious to see how all this chaos is going to affect EA Sports College Football 26.
Once called the “Conference of Champions”, the PAC-12 consists of 7 teams as of now, with the conference currently trying to sign the Texas State Bobcats as their eighth. Even though this is good news for the PAC-12, it opens a huge can of worms for EA. With the game set to launch in just a couple of weeks and an entire conference going upside down, the developers have a lot of work to do. From legal issues to marketing dilemmas, we’ve got it all here.
Why Will PAC-12 Cause Issues for College Football 26
While the PAC-12 almost disbanded at first, with only Oregon and Washington left in the league, it has bounced back after signing some new teams. However, since it has acquired new board members, EA must get separate legal rights in order to use its logo, name, and branding. But with everything, including legal, up in the air with the conference, who’s in charge of giving those permissions?
To understand everything, let’s break down the fall and rebuilding phase of the PAC-12.
- June 2022 USC: UCLA announce move to Big Ten
- July – September 2023: Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Stanford, Cal leave Pac-12
- December 2023: Legal victory for OSU and WSU; control of Pac-12 assets
- September 2024: Pac-12 adds five Mountain West schools
- April 2025: New media rights deals with ESPN, CBS, The CW
- June 2025: Texas State likely to join as the eighth football member
With the league almost completing its dramatic transformation, the PAC-12 board will include presidents of the new schools, as well as members of the OSU and WSU. So, for EA to legally include the new PAC-12 into the game, it needs to acquire the legal permissions and solve the licensing nightmare.
Since the teams haven’t been announced yet, it’s possible that they might have already claimed the rights for the conference, completing the first step. However, since the state of the conference is changing by the minute, the developers will need to keep up. The roster of CFB 26 will require regular updates, as the PAC-12 continues signing new members to the conference. This is the biggest hurdle for EA since they need to focus on the launch, as well as include all the new teams.
Should EA be unable to properly license the PAC-12 conference, CFB players will again be forced to create custom conferences and schedules. This is something we’d consider ourselves experts in.
We’re yet to see what route EA decides to take, as hurdles seem to plague every visible option. For now, let’s just wait and see what the game looks like on launch. We probably won’t see the entirety of the PAC-12 on day one, but there’s so much more to focus on in the game.
