The Pac-12 is headed back to the courthouse again, and this time, it’s dragging the Mountain West Conference with it.
According to Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the Pac-12 filed suit against Mountain West on Tuesday over $43 million in penalty fees that the MWC feels it is owed after several of its schools announced their intentions to leave the conference.
In the Pac-12’s legal complaint, the league alleges that the penalties that the MWC is trying to impose are “unlawful, unenforceable and a violation of antitrust law.”
Per Dellenger, the Pac-12 filed on Tuesday morning in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and is seeking “declaratory relief from a judge.”
For several years, the Pac-12 and Mountain West have successfully co-existed on the West Coast, but with the latest wave of conference realignment tearing the Pac-12 down to two teams, the two conferences are now in a struggle for survival.
In an effort to rebuild its brand after losing 10 of 12 schools, the Pac-12 is set to add five former MWC schools and has a good chance of adding another one.
It’s important to note that the suit is related to a “poaching penalty” that was included in a scheduling agreement that the two conferences entered in 2023. According to Dellenger, Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez was “aware of the Pac-12’s possible plans to rebuild with Mountain West members” and included the penalty in question in the agreement to de-incentivize that as a potential move.
That means the suit is not related to the exit fees that the Mountain West schools are on the hook for — more than $17 million per school.
