Utah State joins Pac-12; UNM, Mountain West left to play waiting game. Here's what we know.

In what will go down as one of the more chaotic days in an already wildly chaotic period of non-power conference realignment, the University of New Mexico remains today in the same position it has been throughout: A member of the Mountain West Conference.

It will be a Mountain West without Utah State, however, as the Aggies on Monday became the fifth MWC member to agree to join the Pac-12 in the past two weeks.

The Lobos are hopeful the Mountain West survives the turmoil, but without nearly as much say in the matter as it would like.

UNM Interim Athletic Director David Williams told the Journal on Monday night that the university is fully exploring all of its options for what is next in terms of conference realignment, including whether the future home of the Lobos is in the Mountain West or even in another conference.

First, there is some settling of the Mountain West’s current situation needing to take place.

As of late Monday night, two leagues — maybe more — were waiting on the leadership at UNLV to decide whether to accept an invitation to join the rebuilt Pac-12 conference, which two weeks ago announced Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State were joining in the 2026-2027 season.

Earlier Monday, sources confirmed the eight remaining Mountain West football-playing schools were in agreement to stand firm with one another and continue on as a league along with an estimated $111 million in exit fees coming the league’s way via the recent defections.

Then things changed sometime in the early afternoon on Monday in Logan, Utah, when sources say Utah State went back on its agreement to the other remaining Mountain West teams and instead took a 12th-hour invitation from the Pac-12 — leaving both the Pac-12 and Mountain West each with only seven football-playing members, one short of the NCAA-required eight to be recognized as a league and eligible for College Football Playoff revenue sharing.

The Pac-12, which currently consists only of Oregon State and Washington State, swung and missed early Monday on attempts to lure American Athletic Conference members Memphis, Tulane, South Florida and UT-San Antonio to join. After that, the Mountain West’s remaining eight members agreed to stand firm together, sources tell the Journal, and word even initially leaked out that Air Force — rumored to be defecting to the AAC — had agreed to a grant-of-rights deal to stay in the MWC, possibly securing some of the exit fee revenue owed to the conference from the defecting schools.

This agreement, sources say, was contingent upon all eight Mountain West members signing the deal.

But when the Pac-12’s AAC move failed, it offered Utah State, which never signed on to the agreement, sources have told the Associated Press. In doing so, UNLV then decided to reconsider its place in the Mountain West.

Utah State leaving means the Mountain West war chest is up to around $140 million in exit fees, which could grow to more than $160 million if UNLV follows suit. It may also mean Air Force reconsiders its position and joins the AAC, which already has military schools Army and Navy.

UNM will have to wait and see whether that war chest of money is worth staying in the Mountain West, which will have to extend invitations to other schools, or pursue another league.

UNM’s football struggles, sources have confirmed, are viewed by existing Pac-12 members as a detriment and the Lobos, thus, have little appeal to that league.

The new Pac-12 is banking on getting a new media rights deal that is better than the Mountain West’s existing one that pays each member between $5 million and $6 million a season.

One person with knowledge of the discussions between the Pac-12 and AAC schools said the conference’s pitch included a projected $12 million to $15 million annual media-rights distribution to each school, though that number is hard to confirm until the media rights bidding actually goes out to market. The AAC schools were also presented with options to join solely in football and basketball to alleviate travel costs associated with other sports programs making trips across one or two times zones.

The Pac-12 is also in talks with Gonzaga about whether it can strike a deal with the basketball powerhouse. Gonzaga does not have a football team.

Initial reports Monday that a deal between Gonzaga and the Pac-12 had already agreed to a deal were shot down by the school.

Ralph Russo of the Associated Press contributed to this report.