OSU-WSU FILE TO CONTROL PAC-12

Northwest leftovers want assets and to rebuild conference

The future of the Mountain West may rest in a legal complaint filed Friday in the eastern Washington town of Colfax at the Whitman County Courthouse, which sits along the South Fork Palouse River, across the street from a car wash and a couple blocks down Main Street from Pearson Farm & Fence.

That’s where Washington State and Oregon State filed a joint civil action in state superior court against the Pac-12, essentially requesting full control of the conference’s name, brand and assets.

“At its core,” the 16-page complaint states, “this is a dispute over who has the authority to act on behalf of the Pac-12 Conference. Only judicial intervention can resolve this dispute.”

If the Pac-12’s two remaining members prevail, it’s considered the first step in reimagining the beleaguered conference with San Diego State and select (but maybe not all) members of the Mountain West.

Lose, and the Pac-12 likely dissolves — and Washington State and Oregon State would have few viable alternatives other than joining the existing Mountain West.

“Washington State and Oregon State have each been members of the Pac-12 for more than a century,” their complaint says, “and they are dedicated to promoting the Conference and its mission. In particular, they are interested in exploring opportunities to preserve the Pac-12.”

Among those, it says, is “recruiting new members.”

USC and UCLA announced their departure last summer to the Big Ten starting in 2024, when the conference’s current Grant of Rights expires along with its media rights contract. A year later, eight more followed, leaving the two Northwest schools as the big losers in the latest round of conference realignment.

The Mountain West has actively recruited them, with Commissioner Gloria Nevarez visiting both campuses in recent weeks to extoll the virtues of her 12school league which sits one rung below power conference status.

But leaving the Pac-12 now would mean dissolution of the conference, and its assets — estimated between $50 million and $100 million — would be divided 12 ways. If Washington State and Oregon State, as they contend, are the lone remaining members of the conference’s Board of Directors, they could keep those assets by