Mountain West Says San Diego State Left Conference, Owes Buyout Money
The drama continues with letters five and six
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Mountain West is saying Aztecs left the conference
June 30 came and went with San Diego State not getting an invite to join the Pac-12. That led to the Aztecs telling the Mountain West that it would be remaining in the conference.
It was a big blow to the Aztecs who were hoping and expecting an invite to the Pac-12, but there is no media deal in place for the league.
All seemed like no harm, no foul, but that is not how the Mountain West took it.
The San Diego Union-Tribune obtained a fifth and sixth letter that basically says that San Diego State submitted its notice to leave the conference on June 30. The league is proceeding in that direction.
Letter 5: “We previously advised you that SDSU had not made a final determination as to whether to resign from the Mountain West Conference,” SDSU President Adela de la Torre wrote. “I am pleased to advise you that SDSU has decided to remain in the Mountain West Conference and therefore will not be resigning at this time.”
Letter 6: The conference replies Saturday that, as the bylaws allow, is withholding a $6,602,233.48 payment due the university this week as the first installment of the exit fee “in connection with our receipt of the SDSU Notice of Resignation.”
Not only is San Diego State not getting the $6 million check but also is responsible for the $17 million exit fee. The Mountain West is taken it literally in the first letter that the Aztecs sent that said the school was on its way out by wanting to “formally notice that San Diego State University intends to resign.”
The Mountain West has started the process for teams leaving the league which includes not having San Diego State present for meetings.
If you want a reenactment of how this played out. George Costanza has you covered.
SDSU has gone full Costanza https://t.co/3GQXKh2NqD pic.twitter.com/sEIUzOXIOk
— Hunter Miller (@MillerHHunter) July 4, 2023
There are going to be lots of lawyers involved in this. New Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez responded to the Aztecs letter by saying this situation will be discussed later this month.
“We will discuss the status of SDSU’s membership in the conference at a July meeting of our Board of Directors,” said a July 1 letter from Nevarez to SDSU President Adela de la Torre, responding to de la Torre’s letter Friday saying the Aztecs were staying in the conference.
That meeting is scheduled for July 17 and due to Mountain West bylaws, will be held without the Aztecs president in the room to discuss.
This could backfire or be brilliant for the Mountain West. The obvious way it could backfire is because San Diego State wanted a month-long extension to avoid paying the $34 million to leave the Mountain West after June 30.
With the conference sticking firm and saying the first letter triggered a resignation from the Mountain West, Nevarez is giving San Diego State about two weeks more time for a Pac-12 invite.
If the Pac-12 gets a media rights deal done by July 17 — maybe even a few days after depending on how things go — San Diego State could have received what it wanted with some extra time and paying just $17 million.
Actually, San Diego State could just keep fighting this and go with the Pac-12 timeline. Then get invited whenever and just hope that invite actually comes in enough time so that the Aztecs are scrambling as an independent in all sports for the ’24-’25 season.
Maybe the Mountain West is playing hardball to show San Diego State and other schools that could be planning on leaving down the road that rules are rules.
The conference really needs San Diego State to thrive and by sticking to the letter of the rules it could backfire with these delays.
They have to know that so perhaps the league is trying to figure out a way to keep the Aztecs longterm. This also could just be the start of negotiating an exit that may not be as bad for the league or San Diego State.
One item that could be on the table and this is just a guess by maybe some sort of Grant of Rights situation that would make it extremely prohibitive to leave the conference.
The ACC has one and it is basically iron clad and if a team were to break it, the media rights money they get in a new league would go straight to its former league. Meaning zero TV money for going to the Pac-12 for the remainder of the conference.
The Mountain West could try that but it might be hard for that to happen because there are other teams that could maybe get a call-up and would 100% take that move.
Having all 12 members sign a Grant of Rights sounds good in theory but the members of this conference likely would only sign one for a few years and definitely not a long-term deal that hands over the media rights to the conference.
This is not over by a longshot and will be very interesting to see how this all plays out for both San Diego State and the Mountain West.
