The Mountain West conference reportedly is in discussions with Hawaii about the school joining as a full member, bringing their non-football sports over from the Big West, according to Brett McMurphy of Action Network.

After the departures Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Gonzaga, the Mountain West needs a full member to meet the FBS requirement. It will be worth monitoring this story to see if Hawaii eventually agrees to become a full member of the Mountain West.

Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Gonzaga will be joining the Pac-12 in 2026, so the Mountain West needs to figure out what the future of the conference looks like. It will be interesting to see what the conference looks like a few years down the line as a result of the realignment moves that have taken place in recent years. Hopefully, for the Mountain West's case, the conference can secure that last full member with Hawaii, if it has the desire to.

Mountain West a victim of realignment moves at the top of college sports

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The recent wave of realignment goes back to when Texas and Oklahoma made the leap from the Big 12 to the SEC. Not long after that, the Big Ten poached USC and UCLA from the Pac-12. These moves set of a chain reaction, where the Big 12 and Pac-12 were at a crossroads.

The Big 12 added schools from the AAC like Cincinnati, UCF and Houston, along with BYU. Later on, the Pac-12 had to secure a television contract, but before that could happen, Oregon and Washington decided to join USC and UCLA in the Big Ten. Colorado was already on its way to the Big 12 at that point, but as a result of Oregon and Washington going to the Big Ten, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah followed Colorado to the Big 12.

That resulted in the Pac-12, which had only Oregon and Washington State, poaching the schools who left the Mountain West.

It is all a chain reaction that the Mountain West had very little, if any control over. Now, the conference is picking up the pieces and trying to stay alive. The talks with Hawaii are interesting, and it will be worth watching to see if any other schools have talks with the conference in the coming weeks. Meeting the FBS requirement by just one leaves the conference in a vulnerable position again. As recent years have indicated, realignment moves are very hard to predict.