Report: San Diego State to tell Mountain West it's not leaving after all
SDSU told the conference earlier in June that it planned to leave in 2024
San Diego State doesn’t appear to be changing conferences anytime soon.
According to ESPN, the school is "expected" to rescind its withdrawal request from the Mountain West. Two weeks ago, SDSU told the Mountain West that it “intends to resign” from the conference. The notice was given so that SDSU could pay a significantly smaller fee to the conference by giving notice before July 1.
Source: San Diego State is expected to deliver a notice to the Mountain West today that it will not withdraw from the league, as the school previously stated it intended to do. San Diego State plans to move forward as part of the Mountain West.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) June 30, 2023
The move to stay in the Mountain West — for the time being, anyway — comes as the Pac-12 doesn’t appear to be any closer to its new media rights deal. The Pac-12 is still looking for a new deal after the upcoming school year and currently stands at 10 teams for 2024-25 with the departure of UCLA and USC to the Big Ten.
The Pac-12 makes a lot of sense for the Aztecs if they were to switch conferences. The Big 12 was also mentioned as a possible candidate for SDSU as it hasn’t shut the door on further expansion. But both conferences clearly aren’t ready to welcome San Diego State anytime soon if the Aztecs are choosing to stay put in the Mountain West.
San Diego State’s wandering conference eyes came after periods of success for both the football and men’s basketball teams. It’s easier to move to a big conference when you’re having success in the two biggest revenue-producing sports. San Diego State has been .500 or better in football for 13 straight seasons and the men’s basketball team lost to UConn in the national title game in April.
The Mountain West’s media rights deal runs through 2025-26 and was signed in 2020. Fox and CBS hold the rights to football games from the conference and each school annually receives $4 million. Pac-12 teams currently receive approximately $30 million annually as part of the current media rights agreement.
