Mountain West fires back at Pac-12 in latest court filing

The Mountain West filed a response and counterclaims in a California court Thursday, the league’s latest salvo in an ongoing legal dispute with five departing schools and the Pac-12.

It comes just weeks after the Mountain West’s motion to dismiss the Pac-12’s lawsuit over so-called poaching fees was denied by Susan van Keulen, a judge in the Northern District of California.

In the filing, the countersuit includes charges of breach of contract and fraud.

The Mountain West is seeking to “enforce the contractual terms that the Pac-12 freely negotiated, executed, and now seeks to avoid,” the league said in a statement. “Our counterclaims seek a declaratory judgment that the Termination Fees at issue are valid, lawful, and enforceable. We also assert affirmative claims against the Pac-12 for breach of contract, promissory fraud, tortious interference with contract, and unjust enrichment.”

The filing and statement mark a decidedly more aggressive tone from the Mountain West in its ongoing battle to collect $150 million it believes it is owed.

“The Mountain West is committed to protecting our student-athletes and dedicated member institutions and remains steadfast in defending itself and its positions,” the conference’s statement said. “While we are focused on moving forward, there must be accountability and fairness for all parties involved.”

The Pac-12 first filed suit in September 2024, challenging the imposition of $55 million in fees for bringing Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State, San Diego State and Fresno State into the Pac-12 from the Mountain West. The fees had been spelled out in a scheduling agreement that was signed when the Pac-12 was down to two teams (Oregon State and Washington State) and scrambling to find football games.

The terms of the agreement don’t appear to be in dispute, but the Pac-12 claimed in its lawsuit the deal was unenforceable in part because it was signed under duress.

The Mountain West fired back in its latest filing, claiming the Pac-12 entered the agreement “with eyes wide open.”

“They knew the market realities of realignment,” the Mountain West’s filing said. “The Pac-12 understood that the Pac-12’s potential selective recruitment of (Mountain West conference) members posed a foreseeable and material risk to the MWC and its members, including the conference’s competitive position and long-term enterprise value, so the Pac-12 eagerly agreed — as part of an integrated bargain — to narrow, time-limited safeguards designed to price that very risk.”

A separate case is also pending in Colorado with Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State suing the Mountain West over the enforcement of $18 million per school in exit fees spelled out in the league bylaws.

In addition to answering each of the Pac-12’s claims line-by-line in Thursday’s filing, the Mountain West makes several strong allegations against the Pac-12 in its countersuit.

That includes charges of unjust enrichment, breach of contract and promissory fraud, based on the allegation the Pac-12 agreed to the contract knowing all along it would try to avoid paying the agreed upon poaching fees.

“The Pac-12 represented to the MWC that it would pay the termination fees,” the Mountain West’s filing said. “Those representations were false. The Pac-12 knew these representations were false when made because the Pac-12 intended to recruit fewer than all MWC teams and to refuse to pay the termination fees in that event by challenging (them) as unlawful and unenforceable.”

The filing also claims Oregon State and Washington State planned to poach teams from the Mountain West before the scheduling agreement came to fruition.

The Pac-12 shrugged off the Mountain West’s allegations in a statement.

“As anticipated by the Pac-12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference filed counterclaims today following its unsuccessful efforts to dismiss the Pac-12’s case,” the Pac-12 said in its statement. “The MWC’s filing does not change the fact that its poaching penalties are unlawful restrictions on fair competition and invalid under basic contract law. We remain confident in our position and focused on advancing academic excellence, athletic achievement and the tradition that has defined the Pac-12 for more than a century.”

A significant portion of the money the Mountain West is trying to collect was promised to UNLV in exchange for an agreement to stay in the league.

An initial case management conference for the poaching fees dispute is scheduled for Nov. 18.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.