REPORT: Pac-12, Mountain West Agree in Principle to Settle Lawsuits
Less than two months away from the long-awaited relaunch of the Pac-12 Conference, the former Conference of Champions cleared one of their last hurdles.
First reported by Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union Tribune, the Pac-12 Conference and Mountain West Conference agreed to settle their flurry of lawsuits related to exit fees and poaching penalties.
In a joint statement, the two conferences - alongside former Mountain West members Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State, and San Diego State - announced that parties had agreed to formally pause lawsuits filed in California and Colorado. Now, the two leagues will try to negotiate a settlement.
The arduous legal duel began in late 2024, when the Mountain West Conference sued the Pac-12 for supposedly violating a poaching penalty clause in a scheduling agreement that was signed the previous year. That scheduling agreement required the Pac-12 to pay $10 million if a Mountain West school left for the Conference of Champions. In January 2025, the Pac-12 filed a countersuit, sparking response from Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez:
“The (poaching) provision was put in place to protect the Mountain West Conference from this exact scenario. At no point in the contracting process did the Pac-12 contend that the agreement that it freely entered into violated any laws.”
Through it all, suspense mounted. The Mountain West promised payouts to it's surviving members, and the Pac-12 looked to complete its realignment with an eighth full football-playing member school, which it found with Texas State.
In February 2025, the two conferences briefly entered mediation, though talks were unsuccessful. Last May, the leagues took another step towards today's announcement with a second try at mediation. After a series of denials and counterclaims, we're finally here: the two biggest conferences in western United States college athletics can move on towards their respective futures.
Financial terms of the settlement have not yet been disclosed.
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Matt fell in love with radio during his college days at Oregon Tech, and pursued a nine year career in sports broadcasting with Klamath Falls' and Medford's highest-rated sports radio stations. He currently lives in McMinnville wine country and is excited to talk about the Beavers again.