Pac-12, the beleaguered US college sports conference, has launched a federal lawsuit against rival conference Mountain West over team fees the latter has demanded following the realignment of several schools between the two.
Earlier this month, Pac-12 announced that four schools - Boise State University, Colorado State University, California State University Fresno, and San Diego State University - would be joining the competition from Mountain West for the 2026-27 academic year onwards.
Earlier this week a fifth school, Utah State, also elected to defect from Mountain West to Pac-12, while UNLV (also of Mountain West) is still mulling over an offer from the latter conference.
Subsequently, Mountain West has demanded as much as $43 million in “poaching penalties” from Pac-12 for the initial four colleges, a move the latter conference calls anti-competitive and “unenforceable."
That $43 million figure, made up of $10 million per school, rising by $500,000 for each additional school, was only put in place this season.
Gloria Nevarez, Mountain West commissioner, alleged in a statement this week that Pac-12 both acknowledged and agreed to the poaching clause when drafting the scheduling agreement for the upcoming season, which will see a number of Mountain West schools compete against the two current Pac 12 institutions.
Nevarez said: “The fees at issue were included to ensure the future viability of the Mountain West and allow our member institutions to continue providing critical resources and opportunities for our student-athletes.
“At no point in the contracting process did the Pac-12 contend that the agreement that it freely entered into violated any laws. To say that the Mountain West was taking advantage of the Pac-12 could not be farther from the truth.”
Pac-12 meanwhile contended that the poaching penalties were unrelated to the initial scheduling deal (which will not continue in 2025-26) and that it serves to keep Mountain West schools ‘locked up’ and inflate the conference’s profits.
The antitrust lawsuit, filed in the US District Court of the Northern District of California, sees Pac-12 seeking a swift resolution to the issue, especially as it likely lacks the financial muscle to do so.
Pac-12 is only in this situation as its lack of financial pull has led to ten of its 12 schools at the time departing for other, wealthier conferences.
The conference was on the brink of collapse until a short term broadcast deal with the CW and Fox Sports broadcast networks - and the addition of five Mountain West colleges to a future edition - helped to steady the ship.
