Pac-12 or Mountain West: Neither Conference Won the Realignment Fight

LAS VEGAS — The five schools leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12 agreed to pay their former conference $49 million after the Mountain West maintained that it could collect roughly twice that amount in exit fees. Whether that represents a good settlement depends on which number is being measured.

The Pac-12 will make a separate payment to settle the disputed poaching obligation created by its 2024 football scheduling agreement with the Mountain West. That amount remains confidential, leaving subsequent reporting to establish the best available range for the full settlement.

Sportico investigative reporter Daniel Libit obtained the settlement agreement involving Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. The five departing schools will account for a combined $49 million in exit fees, or $9.8 million per school.

Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez signed the agreement July 29, and the presidents of the five departing schools signed it July 31. The conferences announced Aug. 4 that the exit-fee and poaching disputes had been resolved.

The Mountain West had already withheld $46.9 million from the departing schools and accounted for that money as membership exit-fee revenue on its fiscal year 2025 tax return, according to Sportico. The final $49 million settlement is approximately $2.1 million more than the amount the conference had already withheld.

Under the agreement, the Mountain West will deduct and withhold $9.8 million owed by each departing school from its final conference distributions for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons. Any money remaining after those deductions must be remitted to the schools within three business days after the Mountain West receives the Pac-12’s separate settlement payment.

The agreement also releases the legal claims connected to the dispute and includes a non-disparagement provision covering the schools’ presidents and athletic directors. The Mountain West will retain exclusive ownership of game-footage content created before the schools’ departure dates.

The separate Pac-12 settlement resolved the conference’s dispute over a $55 million poaching obligation. That payment was triggered when the Pac-12 added five Mountain West schools after entering a scheduling agreement with the conference to help Oregon State and Washington State complete their 2024 football schedules.

The Pac-12 argued that the provision was anticompetitive, unlawful and unenforceable. The Mountain West maintained that Oregon State and Washington State knowingly accepted the provision when they needed help completing those schedules.

The settlement establishes that the Pac-12 will still pay part of the obligation, but the amount has not been publicly disclosed. Oregon-based sports columnist John Canzano has reported that Oregon State and Washington State paid approximately $10 million each, which would put the Mountain West’s combined recovery near $69 million. San Diego Union-Tribune reporter Mark Zeigler has reported that the poaching payment could fall between $22 million and $24 million, pushing the total recovery to approximately $71 million to $73 million.

The precise total remains uncertain, but the reporting has consistently placed the combined settlement near $70 million. That is considerably less than the approximately $155 million the Mountain West maintained it could collect through roughly $100 million in exit fees and another $55 million from the Pac-12. Measured against that full position, a recovery between $69 million and $73 million represents approximately 45% to 47%.

The exit-fee portion can be measured differently. The $9.8 million payment from each departing school represents about 54% of the approximately $18 million per school the Mountain West anticipated when it constructed its retention agreement in 2024. The conference’s later legal position placed the exit fees closer to $20 million per school, making the documented $49 million settlement 49% of that amount.

Either way, the Mountain West recovered roughly half of what it maintained the departing schools owed in exit fees.

That result is not unusual in conference exit-fee disputes. Zeigler reported in May that schools involved in previous disputes had typically ended up paying about half of the stated fee. He also reported that San Diego State athletic director John David Wicker expected the current dispute to settle near $10 million per school. The final amount landed at $9.8 million.

The Maryland-ACC dispute provides another comparison. The ACC sought approximately $52 million when Maryland left for the Big Ten before the sides settled for approximately $31.3 million, or roughly 60% of what the conference sought. That case does not establish what the Mountain West was legally entitled to collect, but it shows that settling below the stated exit fee is not unusual.

Neither Mountain West lawsuit produced a ruling on the merits. No court decided whether the exit fees were enforceable, whether the conference was permitted to withhold the departing schools’ distributions or whether the Pac-12’s poaching obligation violated antitrust law. The settlement therefore resolves this dispute without creating binding legal precedent for the next school that might challenge its obligations.

For the Mountain West, the most important immediate result is what the reported recovery allows it to do.

Under the grant-of-rights agreement, the first $61 million collected from exit fees and poaching penalties is distributed using a set formula. UNLV and Air Force receive $14.945 million each. Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State and Wyoming receive $7.015 million each, while Hawai‘i receives $3.05 million.

The reported settlement fills that entire first distribution. Depending on whether the Mountain West ultimately receives $69 million or as much as $73 million, another $8 million to $12 million would enter the recruiting-reserve portion of the agreement.

The new members added during the Mountain West’s rebuild do not receive part of that first retained-member distribution. The money was promised to the seven schools that stayed when Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State agreed to leave.

The Mountain West did not collect everything it claimed. It collected enough to satisfy the central financial promise used to keep the remaining conference together.

The Pac-12 and departing schools received a meaningful financial benefit of their own. The five schools reduced their combined exit-fee exposure from approximately $100 million to $49 million. The Pac-12 reduced a $55 million poaching claim to an amount reported between approximately $20 million and $24 million.

That is where much of the disagreement over who “won” begins.

Tyler Bischoff, a Las Vegas sports personality who hosts Technically Correct, has argued that the result should be viewed as a major Pac-12 victory and a failure for the Mountain West. He described the settlement as a “complete disaster” for the Mountain West because the conference recovered less than half of its full claim after losing five of its most valuable programs.

Bischoff also raised the possibility that future members could view the settlement as a reason to challenge their financial obligations rather than accept the stated cost of leaving. He used an estimated annual media-revenue difference of approximately $3.3 million between the conferences to calculate that a departing school could recover its $9.8 million exit cost in approximately three years.

That calculation depends on media-rights figures that have not been publicly confirmed. It also does not account for legal expenses, other costs connected to a move, College Football Playoff revenue, NCAA Tournament units or the competitive value of conference membership.

JY has argued that the $49 million agreement should not automatically be viewed as a poor result for the Mountain West because it covers only the departing schools’ exit fees. The separate Pac-12 payment has to be included when evaluating what the Mountain West actually recovered.

JY also said Nevarez told The Big Mountain at conference media days that the settlement produced more than enough money to fulfill the retained schools’ payment requirements. The reported total supports that point because it exceeds the first $61 million required under the grant-of-rights distribution structure.

Both arguments are supported by part of the settlement.

The Pac-12 substantially reduced how much it and its new members could have been required to pay. The Mountain West recovered enough money to fund the first distribution promised to the seven schools that stayed.

What the settlement does not do is erase how either conference reached this point.

The Pac-12 lost 10 members before rebuilding around Oregon State and Washington State. It later added five Mountain West schools, Texas State and Gonzaga. The Mountain West lost Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State before retaining UNLV, Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, Wyoming and Hawai‘i and adding new members of its own.

Both conferences survived. Both also paid a price to get there.

The Pac-12 saved tens of millions of dollars compared with what the Mountain West maintained it owed. The Mountain West recovered enough to make the first $61 million distribution it promised its remaining schools.

The settlement decided the price of those losses. It did not erase them.