Oregon State and Wazzu are just getting reamed by all this -- though their facilities' advantages should work to their favor in the mid-major leagues.
Of course, it's no guarantee that Cal and Stanford will make it to the ACC, which apparently is going to boil the ocean before settling on the fine print of any deal. Still, that's likely to happen, adding a power (Stanford) and an also-ran (Cal) to the ACC. Though Stanford's recruiting, which is already nationwide, won't suffer, it's hard to see how Cal, with substandard facilities, an incompetent AD and no recent history of success, is going to attract much elite talent. Do West Coast players want to play half their league season across the country from friends and family? And Cal has recruiting connections on the East Coast, so would have to build up a network from scratch, though there is hope that some East Coast players would like to try living in California.
I think about what June Jones said when he was coaching Hawaii's football team. He said it was easy to find players who wanted to come to Hawaii. What was hard was finding players who wanted to come to Hawaii, stay in the gym, and work. I imagine the same principle would apply when recruiting eastern players to west coast schools for winter sports.
week 1 college football games start in less than 24 hours at the time of writing this. it's beyond disappointing just how long this entire process has dragged out, let alone what we're still waiting for.
that said, Stanford has said to be wanting an answer by the end of the week, and no one wants this still being unresolved when Saturday gets here anyway. even then, WSU's and ORST's situation ain't gonna get resolved too the day after unless all four go to the same place, which remains unlikely.
Oregon State and Wazzu are just getting reamed by all this -- though their facilities' advantages should work to their favor in the mid-major leagues.
true. although people have been talking about the two schools negotiating with the MWC and the AAC like those are some legitimately intriguing opportunities, and they're not. either one is still a move down from P5 to G5 – terrible from an optics standpoint let alone one of revenue disparity. you'd really rather be at the bottom of the top than the top of the bottom in this case, hence the desperation we're seeing out of Stanford & Cal to stay in a Power conference no matter how much it screws over the student-athletes who'll actually be making the trips just to play a damn regular-season schedule. (not that it's a whole lot better for the four west-coast schools who are going to the Big Ten, because it's not.)
But if the Cougars and Beavers rebuilt the Pac-12 with the entirety of the Mountain West membership, those schools could simply vote to dissolve their league and move under the Pac-12 banner. Without a conference, there would be no exit fees.
it would be really interesting to see the MWC all vote to dissolve. from there, i could imagine San Diego State making another push to get into the Big 12, as the Big 12 could then add UConn in the same instance for the sake of even numbers. without an exit fee, what could stop the Aztecs? …well, maybe ESPN, but maybe not. for better or worse, the pro rata clause the Big 12 has in their contract wouldn’t apply to G5 schools like SDSU or UConn. perhaps a discount would be enough.
but the reverse merger would be hard to pull off. even if current MWC Commish Gloria Nevarez takes over, she’d then have to pick up where George Kliavkoff left off with regards to negotiating the Pac a media rights deal. if anything, there might just not be much time left, let alone other factors.
the two remaining members of the Pac-12 Conference[,] initiated legal action today to confirm the governance structure of the conference, gain access to business information, and protect the conference’s assets. … According to the Pac-12 constitution and bylaws, if a member school gives notice of withdrawal, they automatically cease to be a member of the Pac-12 Board of Directors. Therefore, Oregon State and Washington State now constitute the entire membership of the Pac-12 Board of Directors. …
Oregon State and Washington State brought this action against the conference and Pac-12 commissioner in the state of Washington requesting a temporary restraining order. The filing seeks to prevent the Pac-12 from permitting the departing members of the Pac-12 Board of Directors from meeting and attempting to take any action regarding the status or governance of the conference in ways that preclude OSU and WSU from potentially rebuilding the conference. The universities will be pursuing a declaratory judgement from the court confirming OSU and WSU as the sole remaining voting members of the Pac-12 Board of Directors, according to today's filing.
The Pac-12 commissioner recently asked current and former members of the Pac-12 board to meet on Sept. 13 to vote on a “go forward governance approach” for the conference, in violation of the Pac-12 constitution and by-laws, according to the filing. The temporary restraining order seeks to prevent this meeting or similar action, which would cause immediate and irreparable harm to OSU, WSU, and the conference.
This is going to be long and ugly, and make a lot of lawyers rich.
And of course the next round of realignment will arrive sooner rather than later. What will be interesting is that the media payouts the conferences are used to may be drastically reduced because cable-dependent networks may not have nearly as much cash to throw around.
still, ORST & WSU have to figure their shit out in time for next year. the time factor is one thing they’ll legitimately have working against them in any theoretically long legal battle.
hope the two schools can both establish that there are more assets than liabilities remaining with the conference, then proceed to secure them. that’s the only way they’ll be able to find the path that’s best for them to move forward.
(everyone has pretty much stopped talking about these two schools, even as what they do may affect the college sport landscape – particularly with regards to football – moving forward. i feel like i’m one of the last people in the country who care about following this story, which makes me sad. but, it is what it is.)
Last Edit: Sept 28, 2023 16:37:26 GMT -5 by Deleted
it’s true. it sounds like we’ll know more in the next 4-6 weeks, if not gain clarity on how things actually unfold – and not just with the Pac-2 schools either.
The University of Washington and the other nine outgoing members of the Pac-12 have struck back at Oregon State and Washington State in a series of briefs and motions filed on Monday and obtained by The Athletic. Here’s what you need to know:
—On Monday, UW filed a motion to intervene in the litigation between Washington State and Oregon State and the Pac-12 conference, arguing that it is involved in the lawsuit but its interests are not adequately represented by any existing party. —If granted, UW would then ask Whitman County (Wash.) Superior Court to grant a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. —The nine outgoing Pac-12 schools filed a brief to support UW and support its motion to dismiss. They also said they’ve entered into a mediation process with WSU and OSU that is currently ongoing and scheduled through October.
* * *
Monday’s news comes in response to the temporary restraining order granted to Oregon State and Washington State last month that prevented the Pac-12 from holding board of directors meetings. The conference can conduct normal business but cannot meet as a board without court approval.
Oregon State and Washington State are seeking an injunction to block what they believe is an attempt by commissioner George Kliavkoff and the 10 departing schools to make governance decisions that affect their futures. Both schools have said they want to explore ways in which they could rebuild the Pac-12 by taking control of their assets and the brand.
The nine outgoing schools made similar arguments as Washington did in their filing Monday, arguing that they are directly impacted by the lawsuit but are not parties to it because they are out-of-state institutions and because most are also covered by state sovereign immunity defenses.
UW and the other nine schools believe that Washington State and Oregon State are interpreting the Pac-12 bylaws incorrectly and that there is nothing in the bylaws that prevents a member from leaving the conference after its current media rights deals expire. The brief filed on behalf of the nine schools states that “A member breaches its obligations … only if it delivers a notice that it will actually withdraw before August 1, 2024. None of the 10 schools that WSU and OSU seek to expel from the Board have delivered such a notice, because none of them will withdraw before August 1, 2024.”
A lawyer representing Oregon State and Washington State argued at the Sept. 11 hearing that eight schools — Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Stanford and California — forfeited their right to be on the Pac-12 board when they announced their intentions to join other conferences next year. USC and UCLA were stripped of voting rights by the Pac-12 in the summer of 2022 when they decided to join the Big Ten. The two schools are arguing that their peers announcing they’re joining new conferences is equivalent to giving the Pac-12 its formal notice, a contention that has been disputed by the departing schools.
“The departing schools continue to undermine our efforts to secure the future of the Pac-12 Conference,” spokesmen for Washington State and Oregon State wrote in a joint statement. “They are relying on flimsy arguments to try to escape accountability for their actions. It won’t work. Their decisions directly damaged the Pac-12 and are causing real harm to the Conference, OSU, WSU, student-athletes, and the people of Oregon and Washington. We did not create or seek these circumstances, but OSU and WSU will continue to take whatever actions are necessary to protect our universities, ensure accountability and transparency, safeguard the Pac-12 Conference, and preserve our options moving forward. The future of the Pac-12 should be decided by the schools who stay, not those who go.”
As part of UW’s motion to intervene, it attached its reasoning for its motion to dismiss. The argument is three-fold: 1) that the Court should defer to the members of a voluntary association regarding interpretation of their own bylaws; 2) that the Court lacks statutory authority to issue the relief without all affected parties present; and 3) that WSU and OSU cannot join all indispensable parties to the lawsuit. UW also argued that the WSU/OSU motion for a preliminary injunction should be denied because they are interpreting Pac-12 bylaws incorrectly.
UW is requesting a hearing on the motion to intervene to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 25.
Representatives for the 10 departing schools also released a statement Monday: “As we share another memorable fall season of Pac-12 athletics, we recognize the complex challenges of the current situation. Our court filings show how our schools are in full compliance with the Pac-12 Bylaws, which prohibit a member from leaving the conference before August 2024 but allow schools to announce a withdrawal that will happen after that date. We are looking forward to engaging in further candid and constructive conversations that will allow us to reach a fair resolution and position our communities for future success.”
i wasn’t sure if it was because of a glitch that i had access to The Athletic’s whole article without a subscription so i chose to post it in its entirety.
the optics of UW filing against its sister school though irks me. i hate that UW is doing this. unless this motion to intervene actually [secretly] helps WSU [& ORST] – someone is more than welcome to make a legal case that this motion UW filed legitimately does help WSU & ORST – this will only piss off WSU and make it such that our two big in-state schools will either never compete against each other, OR it just got that much more expensive for UW to schedule WSU. this pissing WSU off may lead to UW having to pay WSU more to get them on the schedule. i view this as a high-risk, not-as-high-return move for UW.
anyway, the chosen mediator apparently has a very good track record of getting cases to settle. let's hope that happens, as it would also likely be the quickest way of wrapping this shit up.