A federal judge has allowed the demand for the PAC-12 conference against the Mountain West conference over more than $ 55 million in “Cazatalado Fees” progress.
The senior judge of the northern district of California, Claudia Wilken, denied the motion of the West mountain to dismiss the case on Tuesday. She established an initial case management conference for November 18.
“The PAC-12 conference was pleased that the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied the motion of dismissal of the Mountain West conference,” said the PAC-12 in a statement. “We will move forward with our case. The failure allows our antitrust and related claims to continue. We continue insurance of our position and focus on advancing in academic excellence, Atlético achievement and the tradition that has defined the PAC-12 for more than a century.”
The conferences did not reach an agreement within a period of July for mediation, and the PAC-12 requested the audience on a pending motion to dismiss.
The PAC-12 and some of its new schools filed demands last year, claiming that the poaching clause agreed when he signed a programming agreement for their football teams for last season was not valid.
The clause required mountain payments to the west of $ 10 million for the first team that left, with the amount that grew at $ 500,000 for each additional team. That was above the exit rates more than $ 17 million of which schools were responsible as part of a different agreement.
Mountain West said in a statement that his lawyers were reviewing the judge's decision.
The state of Colorado, the state of Utah, the state of San Diego, the state of Fresno and the state of Boise leave the west mountain and will join the PAC-12 from 2026. The conference added the state of Texas in June to reach the minimum of eight teams to be eligible for an automatic offer for their champion in the University Soccer playoff.
Oregon State and Washington State are the only remaining members of PAC-12 after an exodus last year that threatened the future of the conference. The two schools reached a programming agreement with Mountain West so they could rebuild a football schedule last season.
Mountain West has added Utep, Hawaii and northern Illinois for football that begins in 2026.
The state of Boise, the state of Colorado and the state of Utah also filed an updated lawsuit against Mountain West last month, claiming that he incorrectly retained millions of dollars and cheated them on a plan to accelerate the membership of the Grand Canyon.
