THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Pac-12 II should be a heckuva hoops league

Can we fast-forward to the 2026-27 college basketball season already?

Yes, I know football drives the bus in college athletics. 

And the Pac-12 II will have its own intrigue in that sport. 

And though some of the other schools have taken turns getting a piece of Boise State over the years, the Broncos have proven to be the bullies of the Mountain West in football. BSU is in its 14th season of Mountain West football, and has lost just 17 conference games. 

Sounds like a Gonzaga-type run in West Coast Conference basketball. 

We’ll get back to the Zags in a minute. 

But it will be good (for fans, anyway) for Boise State football to have some more competition in its conference, with the addition of Washington State and Oregon State in the fall of 2026. 

Boise State just got done putting a number on WSU last week, and you can see that game becoming the game of the year in the conference (at least, as it’s currently constructed) in a couple of years — a matchup of one of the best teams in a Group of 5 conference vs. A team abandoned when a Power 5 conference disintegrated. 

Even though the schools are only some 300 miles apart, last week’s 45-24 Bronco beatdown in Boise was only the seventh time the teams have met. In theory, Boise State’s games vs. WSU and Oregon State should be the two most-anticipated games on the Broncos’ conference slate. 

BUT THE basketball Pac-12 II should be even better, especially with Gonzaga in the league. 

The Zags won’t have the free ride it has had in the West Coast Conference for nearly three decades (a free ride of its own making, to be sure, as Gonzaga has made itself that much better than everybody else in the league). 

All five Mountain West schools who are joining the Pac-12 II made the NCAA tournament in recent years. WSU, down the past decade and a half, made the NCAAs last year. And Oregon State, down for more than three decades, made the Elite 8 in 2020. 

When the Zags visit those Mountain West arenas — in Boise, in Fresno, in Logan, in San Diego, in Fort Collins — they likely won’t encounter the same hospitality they did in most of the WCC gyms. In time, we will see if the Zags eventually beat the hostility out of those Mountain West crowds, as was the case in the WCC. 

And at least the Zags don’t have to take their road show to The Pit in Albuquerque, or to UTEP ... at least for now. 

Gonzaga’s hoops history with its soon-to-be conference mates is almost non-existent. 

Gonzaga and Boise State have split their 34 all-time matchups, though the schools haven’t met since 2001, a 94-69 loss in Boise — and weren’t going to meet during the regular season, as long as former Zags assistant Leon Rice was BSU coach. 

Until the Pac-12 came calling. 

Gonzaga and Colorado State have met just three times — most recently in 2014, a 93-61 Zags win at home. 

The Zags and Fresno State have also met just three times — most recently in 2002, an 87-77 GU win at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. 

The Zags have played Utah State just twice, splitting the two meetings, winning at home in 2017. 

San Diego State won by 10 points at The Kennel last year. The teams have met just five times total, four of them coming since 2011, three of them Aztec victories 

The Zags are 0-11 vs. Oregon State — though the last meeting was in 1991 as the Beavers’ run, in the 1980s, was ending. 

WSU dominated the series with Gonzaga through 1998. But since the 1999 season, the Zags are 14-3 vs. the Cougs, with the last meeting in 2015. Some of WSU’s memorable wins during that current run came in 2008 (a 51-47 win at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane) and in 2011 (an 81-59 pummeling in Pullman). 

MEANWHILE, IN the WCC, every year we hear how improved the other teams in the league are.  

And every year, the Zags still dominate. In most games, the Zags go in knowing, barring a miracle, they are going to win. Even worse, the other team knows that too. Even at home. 

The numbers don’t lie. 

Gonzaga has won 47 straight games vs. Pepperdine — forty-seven straight! The Waves’ last victory came in 2002. 

GU has won 30 in a row vs. San Francisco. 

The Zags are 81-22 all-time vs. But LMU — the Lions have won just four times since 1997. 

Gonzaga is 21-0 vs. Pacific since the Tigers joined the WCC in 2013. 

The Zags have won 18 in a row vs. Portland — and 52 out of 54 since 1997. 

Gonzaga has won 18 straight vs. San Diego — and 51 out of 54 since 2000. 

Gonzaga lost at Santa Clara this past season — but is still 49-3 vs. the Broncos since 2001. 

Only the rivalry with Saint Mary’s has been remotely competitive — especially lately, as the teams have split their last eight meetings. The Gaels are the only remaining WCC team that refuses to bow to the Lovable Zags. 

But even at that, Gonzaga has won 57 out of 72 vs. the Gaels since 1999. 

When BYU joined the West Coast Conference in 2011, the Cougars were supposed to be another tough foe for the Zags. But while BYU won three times at Gonzaga, GU is still 25-7 vs. BYU, including 6-0 in the conference tournament.    

And that’s before even mentioning Grand Canyon University, the new kids on the block in Phoenix, with its boisterous — some would say annoying — fan base dubbed the Havocs. Remember the Havocs taking over the Spokane Arena in March, as Grand Canyon upset Saint Mary’s in the first round of the NCAAs?

GCU, which like the Zags does not offer football, joins the WCC in 2025 — the Zags’ final year in that league. Who knows if the WCC is just a rest stop for the Lopes on their way to the Pac-12 II. 

I always thought the WCC would be a more interesting hoops league without the Zags anyway — you never know who would win it. The first thought would be Saint Mary's, of course, and that may have happened, but I don't think the other teams fear the Gaels like they do the Zags.

In any event, here’s hoping the Pac-12 II in hoops shapes up as a terrific basketball conference in a couple of seasons — and not just on paper. 

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @CdAPressSports.