One of the big news items in sports is the fact that the PAC-12 and the Mountain West have released a statement that they are working towards a settlement that will resolve all lawsuits between the two conferences and the schools that left the Mountain West to join the reformed PAC-12. News of this settlement being worked out is a victory for the Pac-12 whatever the final number is that they will pay the Mountain West. Why? Let me explain.
First, that settlement means that the $150 Million dollars that the Mountain West was seeking for teams leaving the conference and the poaching fees that the Pac-12 were accused of owing is off the table for now. It could come back if the settlement doesn’t come to fruition. But let’s say that the Fox executive that says that this sort of settlement talks usually average out to 55% of what the plaintiff was seeking. That is around the $80 Million mark. Still a boatload of money, but around $70 Million short of what the Mountain West was looking for.
Since we are on thesubject of money, you have to remember the countersuits that three of the leaving schools filed against the Mountain West. I’m sure that those allegations were provable. Which would hurt the final amount of money that the Mountain West would get. All we are getting is guesses on the money that they have settled for, so let’s take 40% of the typical settlement amount for those lawsuits to end with this settlement. We are at $50 Million. Still a great amount of cash and it will help the Mountain West. But that much from the Pac-12 while hurting the conference, would make all their legal problems from the non-merger that happened in 2024 disappear and for the long term, the Pac-12 is better for it.
Realignment is coming in 2030. The fact that this is behind the conference will help them with bringing new schools to be part of their conference. I would even suggest that if the rumors of the Big-12 coming and scooping up Washington State and Oregon state to bolster their conference in the Pacific Northwest, that the Pac-12 can still survive. If the premier league of the Group of 6 conferences is going to be affected by realignment, how do you think that the conferences lower on the totem pole will be affected? I can see a Pac-12 inviting most of the Mountain West into the league. In this scenario, I would invite San Jose State, UNLV, New Mexico, Wyoming, and North Dakota state to join the Pac-12 if they cannot convince Stanford and Cal to come join the league. I don’t want Hawaii because of the travel costs. I don’t want Nevada for their history of financial support. Northern Illinois is a team that we wouldn’t need to play football in the conference. Air Force would be nice, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the American would be their conference to join. That makes tons of sense for all the military academies to be in one conference. UTEP is a school that I wouldn’t really want. They haven’t been one of those upcoming powers that you would look at for football or basketball and gives your conference more legitimacy. So they could go join another conference.
Even if Washington state and Oregon state stay in the Pac-12, there are schools out there that could join the conference. Sacramento state and New Mexico State just to name a couple. That would get you off the minimum 8 football playing members to be a conference. With all this legal trouble behind them, the Pac-12 should be able to prove that they can give schools more money than the other conferences in the Group of 6. Washington State is projecting revenue of $13 Million this coming year. Even if it is half of that, coming in at $6.5 Million means that your schools are making about $2-3 Million more per year than the Mountain West. If you don’t think that is much, ask those schools making the $3-4 Million in the mountain West.
The Pac-12 has a slight chance to become the premier league along the Pacific Coast. This settlement helps with that. Cal and Stanford in the ACC does basically nothing for that conference. The 4 schools that went to the Big 10 are household names, but they are seeing that there are other brands in that conference that outshine and bring more value than them. Fans, alumni, and some school officials now realize that being in the Pac-12 and being the cream of the crop in their conference wasn’t so bad.
2026 is the inaugural year for the revived Pac-12. Only one chance to make that first impression. And with this major storm cloud no longer above them, the PAC-12 can put their best foot forward and put this affair in their rearview mirror.
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