Subscribe
Follow Us
Conference realignment may not be settled on a football field or basketball court, but a courtroom. The Pac-12 Conference is suing the Mountain West Conference, per Yahoo Sports. The complaint is filed in result of a $43 million request that the Mountain West wants from the Pac-12 for taking some of its members.
There are five schools leaving the Mountain West Conference for the Pac-12. Those schools are: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. Those schools plan to join Oregon State and Washington State in a revamped Pac-12 Conference. UNLV may join them, although that is up in the air. The Pac-12 also wants Gonzaga to join as a basketball-only member.
According to an agreement made earlier by the two conferences, there is a penalty for one league taking schools from the other league. That's known as a “poaching penalty.” The Mountain West says it is owed money from this penalty. Since five schools are leaving, those penalties could be $50 million or even more in total. The Pac-12 is trying to get out of paying that, arguing that the penalties are against the law.
“There is no legitimate justification for the ‘poaching penalty,’” the complaint says, per Yahoo Sports. “In fact, the MWC already seeks to impose tens of millions of dollars in ‘exit fees’ on MWC schools that depart from the conference. To the extent the MWC would suffer any harm from the departures of its member schools, these exit fees provide more than sufficient compensation to the MWC.”
The Pac-12 made the filing Tuesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking relief from a judge.
More schools could be leaving the Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West is on life support, after losing five schools. UNLV could be the next school to bolt the conference, and this lawsuit may play a role in what happens to the Rebels.
According to the NCAA, a conference needs 8 members to be considered an FBS member league. The Pac-12 conference only has seven members after this shift in realignment. The Mountain West has even fewer members, and both leagues are deadlocked in a struggle to stay relevant.
The Mountain West is also owed exit fees from the five schools who are leaving the conference. Those fees are separate from this poaching penalty case, and could supply the Mountain West with as much as an additional $17 million per school, per the outlet.
Conference realignment seems to have no end. Schools from other leagues are surely looking at this court case to see how the law plays a role in the shifting world of college athletics.
