February 12, 2026
By Carter Bahns, CBS Sports: A new era of Pac-12 football is near with the rebuilt conference set to debut this fall. The eight-team league announced its 2026 schedule on Wednesday, which features a round-robin slate and a unique “flex” matchup for each team in Week 13. That flex week could prove instrumental in determining the College Football Playoff picture as the Pac-12 seeks to establish itself as the preeminent Group of Six league and send one of its members to the 12-team tournament.
The modest size of the reimagined Pac-12 creates a reality in which teams cannot play more than seven conference games. Maintaining a three-game nonconference slate with a bye week leaves one unclaimed date on each squad’s schedule, and it is with that open slot that the Pac-12 will introduce the flex games.
The flex week introduces one repeat matchup per team. Every program will play a Pac-12 team it faced earlier in the year, but importantly, the Week 13 rematch will not count towards conference standings. Last year effectively provided a trial run of this format, as Oregon State and Washington State played a home-and-home wherein the first game counted as an official Pac-12 contest and the second was a non-conference battle.
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