Colorado State, Utah State suing Mountain West over exit fees

DENVER (AP) — Colorado State and Utah State have filed a lawsuit saying the Mountain West is engaging in “extraordinary and unauthorized actions” to penalize the five schools leaving the conference for the Pac-12.

Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Utah State announced in September they planned to join the Pac-12 in 2026. The lawsuit filed Monday in Colorado state court by Colorado State and Utah State says the Mountain West and commissioner Gloria Nevarez have disregarded the league’s bylaws to punish those five schools “in a desperate attempt to prevent further membership departures.”

The complaint says the Mountain West is threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars due to the departing league members, including refusing to reimburse them for travel and other expenses in connection with postseason football games.

“This flouting of the Bylaws and Colorado law is not new,” the complaint says. “It is part of the Mountain West’s ongoing efforts to restrict its members’ ability to freely explore the best options in the marketplace for their student-athletes and penalize certain members for announcing their intent to withdraw from the Conference.”

The complaint states the Mountain West is seeking to require the departing members to pay exit fees “equal to three or six times the average distribution the Mountain West paid to its members in the preceding year, which could range from $19 million to $38 million per resigning member, despite the fact that such Exit Penalty bears no relationship to the purported harm from Plaintiffs’ withdrawal from the Conference.”

O’Melveny, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, said in a release announcing the lawsuit that Nevarez and the Mountain West also have frozen the five departing schools out of board meetings and have operated in secret to violate their rights as league members.

According to O’Melveny, the Mountain West and Nevarez have made side agreements that promise the seven remaining conference members millions of dollars “earned by and owed to the five departing members.” The lawsuit charges that the Mountain West has refused to turn over board minutes and other corporate records, thus violating Colorado law.

The breakup of the Mountain West occurred following the implosion of the Pac-12, with every member school aside from Oregon State and Washington State leaving for the Big Ten, Big 12 or Atlantic Coast Conference.

As the Pac-12 tried to rebuild, it recruited members from the Mountain West.

The seven Mountain West schools that signed a memorandum of understanding to stay were Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Wyoming and Hawaii.

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