The Pac-12 filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday challenging the legality of a “poaching penalty” included in a football scheduling agreement it signed with the Mountain West Conference in December.
Last year, Oregon State and Washington State struggled to fill their 2024 football schedules in the wake of the Pac-12’s collapse, so they reached a one-year deal with the Mountain West that added six MWC opponents to each Pac-12 school’s remaining schedule this season.
As part of the agreement, the Mountain West included language requiring the Pac-12 to pay a $10 million fee if a school leaves the MWC to join the Pac-12, with increases of $500,000 for each additional school.
“This action challenges an anti-competitive and unlawful 'stealing penalty' that the MWC imposed on the Pac-12 to inhibit member schools' competition in college sports,” the lawsuit says. “The 'stealing penalty' imposes exorbitant and punitive monetary fees on the Pac-12 for participating in competition by accepting MWC member schools into the Pac-12.
“The MWC imposed this poaching penalty at a time when the Pac-12 was desperate to schedule football games for its two remaining members and had little leverage to overturn this blatant restriction on competition.”
When Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State announced Sept. 12 that they would leave the Mountain West to join the Pac-12, the Pac-12 was expected to pay $43 million in fees, as detailed in the scheduling agreement. That figure rose to $55 million on Monday after Utah State also accepted an offer to leave the Mountain West to join the Pac-12.
The same day the announcements were made, Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez sent an email to Scott Petersmeyer, the Pac-12's general counsel, outlining the Pac-12's “obligation” to pay the $43 million within 30 days.
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould responded to Nevarez's email on Tuesday to inform him of the lawsuit, noting the conference's stance that the fees are illegal.
“In essence, these provisions seek to inhibit competition by imposing exorbitant and punitive monetary fees on the Pac-12 simply for participating in competition by accepting MWC member schools into the Pac-12,” Gould’s letter said. “As you know, the MWC imposed these undue sanctions over the Pac-12’s objection at a time when the Pac-12 was desperate to schedule football games for its two remaining members and had little leverage to push back against this clear restriction on competition.”
The Mountain West was reviewing the lawsuit when contacted Tuesday by ESPN and had no immediate comment.
The lawsuit also pointed to the roughly $18 million in exit fees each of the departing schools will be required to pay to the Mountain West.
“To the extent the MWC suffers any harm from the departure of its member schools, these exit fees provide more than sufficient compensation to the MWC,” the lawsuit says. “There is no reason why the schools' new conference should be responsible for further compensating the MWC, or why such sanctions should apply only to one competing conference — the Pac-12.”
Negotiations between the Pac-12 and Mountain West this summer to extend the scheduling agreement for the 2025 season ended with a significant gap between what the Mountain West wanted and what the Pac-12 was willing to pay.
“Negotiations between the conferences broke down after the MWC demanded $30 million from the Pac-12 for the 2025-2026 season, more than double the already exorbitant price the MWC was charging the Pac-12 for games in the 2024-2025 season,” the lawsuit states. “After the parties were unable to come to an agreement in the face of the MWC's financial demands, the MWC Commissioner broke off the talks and stated, 'I think we need to move on.'”
With both conferences at seven schools starting with the 2026 season, more movement is inevitable as the NCAA requires a conference to have eight schools that play football. UNLV is on the proverbial clock after having reaffirmed its commitment to the Mountain West on Monday, only to backtrack on that commitment upon learning Utah State was leaving for the Pac-12.
