Pac-12 college football teams will face off with Mountain West Conference teams on the field many times during the 2024 college football season.
Now, the conferences are set to face off in the courts as well, with the Pac-12 filing a legal complaint on Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, per a report from Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger. The Pac-12 is seeking declaratory relief from a judge over millions of dollars in penalties the MWC believes it is owed from the Pac-12 for acquiring five MWC schools.
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In its lawsuit, the Pac-12 described the penalties as “unlawful, unenforceable and a violation of antitrust law.” After the Pac-12 lost several teams to the Big Ten Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference in the latest round of conference realignment hailing over college athletics, the Pac-12 announced the additions of Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State from the Mountain West Conference in the last couple of weeks. The conference also has an offer out to UNLV to join. The lawsuit is the first acknowledgment from the Pac-12 of adding Utah State.
According to Dellenger, the suit filed on Tuesday deals with the “poaching fee” MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez included in the scheduling agreement between the conferences entered into last year. It is unrelated to the more than $17 million in exit fees due for each school.
The poaching fee is reportedly $10 million per school added and increases by $1 million with each new addition. Following the additions of Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Colorado State, the MWC demanded the Pac-12 pay $43 million in “liquidated damages” in poaching fees. With this week’s addition of Utah State, the…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pac-12-conference-files-lawsuit-195605070.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-24 19:56:05
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