Future Pac-12 members Colorado State, Utah State file legal complaint over Mountain West exit fees

Five Mountain West schools, including Boise State, leaving for Pac-12 in 2026

Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez. / Jim Krajewski/RGJ / USA TODAY NETWORK

Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State are all leaving the Mountain West Conference for the Pac-12 in 2026. 

On Monday, Colorado State and Utah State filed a lawsuit over millions of dollars in exit fees owed to the Mountain West, Yahoo Sports’ Ross Ross Dellenger reported. The complaint was filed Monday morning in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in Denver. 

According to the lawsuit, the Mountain West is asking for exit fees ranging between $19-38 million per school. 

Colorado State and Utah State believe the exit fees are “invalid and unenforceable.” The two schools allege that Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez held secret meetings without the departing five members while cutting under-the-table deals with existing members Air Force and UNLV. 

While the lawsuit only includes Colorado State and Utah State, Dellenger reported that all five departing schools believe the exit fees are invalid. A letter to Nevarez signed by the five future Pac-12 schools citing issues with the exit fees was included in the complaint. 

The rocky relationship between the Pac-12 and Mountain West has undergone many twists and turns over the last year-plus.

In December 2023, the Mountain West and remaining Pac-12 members Oregon State and Washington State agreed to a scheduling partnership for the 2024 football season that included an option for 2025. The Pac-12 had lost 10 of its 12 members to the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12, leaving behind the Beavers and Cougars. 

In early September, the Mountain West announced that the scheduling agreement would not be renewed. Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State agreed to join the Pac-12 about a week later. Utah State came on board near the end of September, followed by West Coast Conference power Gonzaga in October. 

After adding the first four Mountain West schools, the Pac-12 filed a lawsuit in federal court over the legality of a “poaching penalty” in the scheduling agreement. The agreement required the conference to pay a $10 million fee if a school were to leave the Mountain West for the Pac-12, with escalators for additional defectors. 

Just like Colorado State and Utah State, the Pac-12 argued that the Mountain West poaching fees were invalid and unenforceable.

“The Poaching Penalty saddles the Pac-12 with exorbitant and punitive monetary fees for engaging in competition by accepting MWC member schools into the Pac-12,” the complaint said. “The MWC imposed this Poaching Penalty at a time when the Pac-12 was desperate to schedule football games for its two remaining members and had little leverage to reject this naked restraint on competition. But that does not make the Poaching Penalty any less illegal, and the Pac-12 is asking the Court to declare this provision invalid and unenforceable.”

The Mountain West filed a motion to dismiss the Pac-12’s lawsuit in November. A motion to dismiss hearing has been scheduled for March 2025 in federal court in the Northern District of California.

Oregon State and Washington State will play independent football schedules in 2025. Both schools are affiliate members of the West Coast Conference — with the exception of Oregon State baseball — for all other sports in the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. 

The Pac-12 has eight schools signed up for the 2026-27 season. The conference will need to add at least one more football-playing member before 2026 to reach the NCAA’s eight-team minimum to qualify as an FBS conference. Gonzaga does not compete in football. 

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