If the golden rule is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” then conference realignment creates a do-or-die situation for the NCAA everywhere.

After being torn to pieces by other conferences, the Pac-12 is poaching Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State from the Mountain West, the league announced Thursday. They will join the conference in 2026, leaving the Mountain West just as Stanford, Cal and others left the Pac-12.

Spartans athletic director Jeff Konya said the Mountain West “remains one of the best FBS conferences in the country.”

“We have great leadership within the Mountain West and SJSU is a proud member of the conference,” Konya said in a statement to this news organization.

Still, the news of the conference realignment is certainly concerning for San Jose State and the other programs still in the Mountain West.

Without four of the Mountain West’s top teams, the Spartans will find themselves in a similar position to the Pac-12: bumping up against the minimum number of schools needed to retain FBS status. The announcement leaves eight schools in the conference: SJSU, UNLV, Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah State, Wyoming and Hawaii. The Pac-12 is two members shy of FBS status, and the Mountain West would fall below the threshold with any more departures.

The Spartans are clearly in a less stable position today than yesterday.

When asked whether San Jose State would be interested in joining the Pac-12 or another conference outside the Mountain West, Konya did not provide a direct answer.

“We are focused on providing a groundbreaking experience for our student-athletes in the classroom, at competitions and in the community,” Konya said via email. “The success we have had over the past several years has been unprecedented, with our most points in the Directors’ Cup standings, which measures all sports achievements in the NCAA postseason, winning a national championship in community service, earning the prestigious NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl, and football making bowl games in three of the last four years, including two in a row. All of these accomplishments have positioned SJSU for future success.”

If the Spartans were to seek a new conference, they might not be high on other leagues’ wish lists. The criteria athletic conferences have used to identify potential schools for conference realignment include media value, geographic fit, academic reputation and competitive success — particularly in revenue-generating sports.

Although the Spartans have reached three bowl games in the past four years, they have not historically had a strong football program. First-year head coach Ken Niumatalolo has led the Spartans to a 2-0 start, but their highest ranking in the AP Poll this century is 19th. The men’s basketball program is even worse, having last made the NCAA Tournament in 1996.

The Spartans are in a top 10 U.S. media market, but the crowded Bay Area sports scene — which includes two major college athletic departments in Stanford and Cal — hurts their attendance and ratings. In 2023, the Spartans’ average football attendance was the third-lowest in the conference, according to D1Ticker.

San Jose’s options are to remain in the Mountain West, which could effectively disappear in 2026, become an independent football program (not affiliated with a specific conference like Notre Dame), find another conference to join or revert to the lower-level Football Championship Subdivision.

Every path has pitfalls.

With the Mountain West crumbling around SJSU, its position in the NCAA appears to be weakening. Conferences are getting stronger in numbers and the league is moving in the wrong direction. Even if schools are added for 2026 and beyond, those schools would likely face similar issues to those currently in the league and could complicate the geography of the conference.