Oregon State and Washington State reach Pac-12 settlement with departing schools
On Friday, the Washington Supreme Court ruled in favor of the 2 schools controlling the conference
The legal wrangling over who controls the Pac-12’s board and assets is over.
The 12 schools currently in the conference released a statement Thursday night saying that they had reached a settlement regarding their legal fight for who gets what in the conference. The settlement comes after the Washington Supreme Court ruled in favor of Oregon State and Washington State — the two remaining Pac-12 members after the 2024 school year — and said they had control of the conference’s revenue and assets.
Per a statement from Oregon State president Jayathi Murthy and Washington State president Kirk Schulz, the 10 teams leaving the conference at the end of the spring sports season agreed to “forfeit a portion of distributions over the rest of the 2023-2024 year and provide specific guarantees against potential future liabilities.”
Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington are heading to the Big Ten next season, while the Big 12 is scooping up Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. UCLA and USC announced they were leaving the conference in the summer of 2022, and the Pac-12 officially fell apart this summer, when Oregon and Washington went to the Big Ten and the Big 12 added the four schools.
Those moves left the Pac-12 at four schools, with Cal and Stanford along with OSU and WSU. Cal and Stanford later joined the ACC.
The Pac-12's assets are estimated at around $400 million.
“In September, as the two remaining members of the Pac-12 Conference, Oregon State University and Washington State University were forced to act swiftly to protect the future viability of the Pac-12,” the statement said. “ … Today’s news marks a huge victory for our universities and a significant step toward stabilizing the Pac-12 conference and preserving its 108-year legacy. This agreement ensures that the future of the Pac-12 will be decided by the schools that are staying, not those that are leaving.”
UCLA and USC were removed from the conference’s board after they announced their exit. That left 10 schools on the conference board, and Oregon State and Washington State have contended that the other eight schools forfeited their right to have input and control of the conference’s assets when they left.
The settlement comes as OSU and WSU have worked to finalize their sports schedules for the near future. Each Mountain West football team will play either Oregon State or Washington State in 2024 — though neither school will officially be a member of the conference — and the schools are working toward an agreement to be members of the West Coast Conference in other sports.
