Utah State chasing Gonzaga in 2026-27 Pac-12 preseason media poll
Oct 29, 2026, 4:17 PM
The Pac-12 released the 2026-27 men's basketball preseason media poll on Thursday, October 29. (Utah State Athletics)
(Utah State Athletics)
LOGAN – The 2026-27 Pac-12 basketball season is nearly here, and the league’s new era already has a clear measuring stick: Gonzaga.
The Bulldogs rose to the top of the revamped conference’s preseason rankings, collecting all 17 first-place votes. Utah State opens at No. 2, but the Aggies have little interest in simply chasing Gonzaga. They are aiming to cage the mighty Bulldogs.
The preseason poll sets the stage for one of the Pac-12’s most intriguing storylines: a powerhouse from the West Coast Conference, a rising Utah State program fresh off a dominant Mountain West farewell, and a collection of former Mountain West contenders eager to prove the new league is more than a race for second place.
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Gonzaga’s spot at the top comes as no surprise. The perennial national contender enters the Pac-12 after winning 23 regular-season West Coast Conference titles since the turn of the century, bringing a pedigree few programs in the country can match.
Utah State, meanwhile, is the highest-ranked former Mountain West program in the poll. The Aggies arrive just months after sweeping the regular-season and tournament championships in their final Mountain West season, a fitting capstone before stepping into a deeper and more demanding conference.
Behind Utah State are San Diego State and Colorado State, two programs that have spent recent years battling the Aggies for Mountain West supremacy. Together, the three schools accounted for six of the past eight Mountain West regular-season and postseason titles.
That history gives the new-look Pac-12 an immediate edge. Gonzaga may be the favorite, but Utah State, San Diego State and Colorado State bring proven championship experience into a league looking to establish its identity from the opening tip.
All nine Pac-12 teams will begin their seasons by Wednesday, Nov. 4. The schedule opens with a seven-game slate Monday, Nov. 2, highlighted by No. 15 Gonzaga facing Purdue in Las Vegas.
The Bulldogs may enter as the unanimous favorite, but the chase begins immediately—and the Aggies aren’t the only team hoping to make Gonzaga’s first Pac-12 season a little less comfortable.
2026-27 Pac-12 Basketball Preseason Media Poll
1. Gonzaga (17)
2. Utah State
3. San Diego State
4. Colorado State
5. Oregon State
6. Boise State
7. Texas State
8. Washington State
9. Fresno State
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Brian Preece is a sports.ksl.com insider covering Locals in MLB and the Salt Lake Bees. Follow Brian’s Bees and Beehive baseball here. Find Brian on X, Instagram, and BlueSky at @bpreece24.
Parts of this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team.
