A federal judge has cleared the way for the Pac-12 Conference to continue its lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference over millions of dollars in “poaching fees,” according to the Associated Press.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California denied the Mountain West’s motion to dismiss the case.
She also scheduled an initial case management conference for Nov. 18.
The dispute stems from a clause in a football scheduling agreement signed last year.
That agreement required schools leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12 to pay $10 million for the first departure, with an additional $500,000 tacked on for each subsequent team.
Those costs were in addition to more than $17 million in exit fees already owed under another agreement.
The Pac-12 and several of its new member schools sued last year, calling the clause invalid.
Mediation efforts failed in July, prompting the Pac-12 to request a hearing on the dismissal motion.
In a statement, the Pac-12 said:
The Pac-12 Conference is pleased that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied the Mountain West Conference’s motion to dismiss. We will move forward with our case. The ruling allows our antitrust and related claims to proceed. We remain confident in our position and focused on advancing academic excellence, athletic achievement, and the tradition that has defined the Pac-12 for more than a century.
The Mountain West issued its own statement Wednesday, emphasizing that the judge’s decision was not a ruling on the substance of the claims:
The court’s ruling makes no judgment about the ultimate merits of the Pac-12’s claims. Rather, the decision states throughout, the court found only that the allegations of the Pac-12’s complaint — which the court must accept as true for purposes of a motion to dismiss — sufficiently alleged claims. The Mountain West remains confident in its position and looks forward to vigorously defending the matter.
The case comes as both conferences undergo major changes.
Colorado State, Utah State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Boise State are scheduled to leave the Mountain West and join the Pac-12 in 2026.
To stay at the required minimum of eight teams for an automatic College Football Playoff bid, the Mountain West added Texas State in June.
Meanwhile, Oregon State and Washington State are the Pac-12’s only current members following a mass exodus last year that threw the future of the century-old league into doubt.
To keep football going, the two schools reached a one-year scheduling partnership with the Mountain West.
The Mountain West also announced it will add UTEP, Hawaii and Northern Illinois for football beginning in 2026.
In a separate matter, Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State filed an updated lawsuit against the Mountain West last month.
That filing alleges the conference improperly withheld millions of dollars and misled schools about a potential plan to accelerate Grand Canyon University’s membership.
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