Canzano: Mud slinging (just a little) in the MW vs. Pac-12 battle
A deep dive on the fight between conferences.
There’s no going back now, but none of the five schools ditching the Mountain West in 2026 to join the Pac-12 have wired $5,000 to the conference offices or given official notice.
“I hope they read the bylaws,” one MW board member told me.
Nobody is in a hurry. The bylaws dictate that the departing MW schools wire a $5,000 exit deposit to the conference on or before June 1, accompanied by an official exit notice.
The MW presidents are irked. They’ll tell you that the “Mountain West Five,” as they’re often called, not only bailed but are still clinging to their board seats, trampling the league’s conflict of interest policy by sitting in on meetings with the Pac-12.
Mediation?
The MW will tell you they’ve asked the Northern District of California Court for a stay of the scheduled March 25 hearing so the sides have time to negotiate toward a settlement. The filing may be coming, but as of Wednesday, the court does not have it. The Pac-12’s attorneys have not received a draft of the filing, I confirmed.
I took a deep dive into the battle between the MW and Pac-12. There are millions of dollars at stake. Both conferences insist they’ve got a winning hand. Both sides will tell you they’re not afraid to go to court. Yet, we all know university presidents are risk-averse and eager to settle.
Said one MW board member: “We don’t want to throw mud at the Pac-12. We just want to move forward. We feel like we’re in a good place as a conference. We should be together (in a merger). We’d be stronger together. But if we’re going separately, how about you just do you and let us do us?”