College football expansion: MWC reaches final decision on San Diego State
There appears to be a resolution in the recent attempt by San Diego State to try out a new conference as the Mountain West has informed the school that it will be able to remain a member going forward, bringing a close to one of the more notable attempts at potential college football realignment, according to media reports.
As part of the solution, the conference said that San Diego State must cover the full range of fees incurred by the league over the course of the exchange of letters between the two sides during the past few weeks.
The school will also agree to not retroactively use its June 13 letter to the conference to get a lower exit fee if it gets an invitation from the Pac-12 to join that league.
It all started when SDSU sent that letter to the Mountain West announcing that it intended to leave the conference in the near future, and requested an extension on the deadline for when it could make a decision, in order to avoid having to pay an exit fee that would double from $16 million to $34 million on June 30.
Then, the Aztecs appeared to reverse course and decided against leaving the conference after all, a decision insiders believe came after the Pac-12 failed to announce a new media deal by the end of June. That was important because San Diego State had emerged as a possible expansion candidate for the Pac-12, although no formal was extended.
But the Mountain West responded by declining to extend that deadline and then informed the school that it had in fact departed the conference by sending the original letter and then said SDSU owed the league that $17 million exit fee.
However, it now appears that by meeting these conditions, the school will be able to stay in the Mountain West going forward.
(Yahoo)
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