Untangling the thorny San Diego State-Mountain West issues
On Feb. 13, the Pac-12 Conference, entrenched in media rights negotiations, issued a statement of unity, saying it looked forward to landing a rights deal in the “very near future.” On April 3, San Diego State‘s men’s basketball team played in its first-ever national championship game.
A marriage between a distressed league seeking stabilization and a rising athletic program with a Southern California presence seemed both inevitable and imminent. Nearly three months later, we’re not only still awaiting the proposal, but the entire process is now fraught with friction.
San Diego State gave the Mountain West Conference written notice this week that the school “intends to resign from the Mountain West Conference,” ESPN’s Pete Thamel first reported. There is no indication, to date, that San Diego State has a formal invitation from a Power 5 conference.
The Aztecs have been strongly linked to the Pac-12’s expansion aspirations. There has been mutual interest. But the Pac-12 has been steadfast that it wants to sign a long-awaited media rights package before moving on expansion possibilities.
All the while the clock has been ticking louder and louder for San Diego State. If San Diego State gave the MWC a one-year notice of their plans to leave by June 30, their exit fee would be the equivalent of triple the most recent annual payout per MWC school, or roughly $17 million. However, according to MWC bylaws, if San Diego State gave notice after June 30 for the 2024-25 academic year, the exit fee doubled to some $34 million.
San Diego State cites delays ‘beyond our control’
As the calendar races toward June 30, there have been indications that the Pac-12 is nearing a conclusion on its negotiations, which have become a lightning rod for scrutiny, criticism and speculation. Washington State President Kirk Schulz last week ballparked that there was a 70% chance that the league would strike a deal by the end of the month.
There was always a possibility that San Diego State could give the MWC notice before receiving a formal invite. That is what school president Adela de la Torre appears to have done in the June 13 letter. The word “appears” is key because matters between the school and the MWC have since turned contentious, according to ESPN, with SDSU subsequently telling the MWC that the June 13 letter was “not the official notice of resignation.”
What this friction suggests is that June 30 is not necessarily a firm timetable for a Pac-12 rights deal to be consummated. It also suggests that San Diego State – without an invitation from the Pac-12 on the table – is keeping its P5 options open. And that may pique interest in the office of the Big 12 Conference, whose first-year commissioner Brett Yormark has designs on reshaping his league into a national conference, stretching to all time zones.
One TV source told On3 that Yormark “outflanked” Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff in securing a rights package first last October. What if Yormark moved swiftly to try to do the same on the expansion front with San Diego State?
In the letter, ESPN reported, San Diego State asked the Mountain West for a “one-month extension given unforeseen delays involving other collegiate athletic conferences beyond our control.” It didn’t reference the Pac-12 rights negotiations specifically. But that’s the $31.6 million elephant in the room.
The $31.6 figure is considered an important threshold for the league. That’s the annual payout that Big 12 teams will receive as part of its new rights package. Last October, the Big 12 secured a six-year, $2.2 billion extension with ESPN and Fox Sports through the 2030-31 season. The Pac-12 has been confident its deal would reach or exceed that number for its members.
Arizona President Robert Robbins recently said he wants to see the financial figures of a new deal before commenting on the school’s future conference affiliation. Both Arizona and Colorado have been linked to the Big 12’s expansion pursuits.
‘The school will rise to the conference’
In the Pac-12, there is no adequate replacement for UCLA and USC, both of which are leaving for the Big Ten. But the addition of the Aztecs enables the Pac-12 to maintain a Southern California presence. It would also add a formidable football team and an immediate league title contender in basketball. Additionally, the elevation to P5 status would boost all facets of the San Diego State athletic department.
“People ask, ‘Why would the Pac-12 want SMU or San Diego State – they barely average 400,000 viewers (per football game)?’ ” one veteran TV source said. “Of course, that’s all (while) playing an average Group of 5 competition on ESPN2, ESPNU, FS1 and CBS Sports Network in time slots against multiple big games on major platforms. What do people think they should be averaging?
“The school will rise to the conference, not the other way around.”
Now San Diego State has given the MWC notice that it plans to depart. And many interested parties are still awaiting the Pac-12 on two fronts: financials in a new media rights deal and a formal invitation extended to the Aztecs. As more friction enters the equation, the wait continues.
The post Untangling the thorny San Diego State-Mountain West issues appeared first on On3.
