College football expansion: MWC responds to San Diego State's request

Where the Mountain West Conference stands after San Diego State informed the league it intends to depart sometime soon

San Diego State could become the next school set to make a move as the college football expansion process heats up again this offseason after it sent a letter to the Mountain West Conference announcing its intent to leave the league, and now the MWC has responded.

The conference has informed the school that it will not approve any exceptions that San Diego State had requested when it sent that original letter.

Those exceptions? Mainly a one-month extension that would allow SDSU to plan an exit from the conference plus a reduced exit fee and the possibility of paying that fee in installments rather than all at once.

San Diego State would need to give a one-year notice to the conference in order to leave by next June. If it waits past June 30, the exit fee more than doubles, from just shy of $16.5 million to almost $34 million.

The timing of San Diego State's desire to leave the Mountain West Conference was notable given a flurry of rumors that the school was a target for the Pac-12 to add, although it is not believed that league has offered the school yet.

Other speculation has also connected the school to the Big 12, which has been public with its desire to further expand its presence around the country.

San Diego State boasts recent success in both football and men's basketball. In the former, the Aztecs have won at least 10 games in five seasons since 2015 and are playing in a brand new 35,000-seat stadium that opened last year, and in the latter, reached the NCAA National Championship Game, falling to UConn, this past season.

The school's base in southern California has made it a target for conferences interested in gaining a foothold in the market, especially the Pac-12, which will lose its two premier Los Angeles-based brands, USC and UCLA, to the Big Ten in 2024.

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