Pac-12 files ‘poaching penalty’ lawsuit in federal court

The Pac-12 filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday challenging the legality of a “poaching penalty” included in a football scheduling agreement it signed with the Mountain West Conference in December.

With Oregon State and Washington State scrambling late last year to fill their 2024 football schedules in the wake of the Pac-12’s collapse, they came to terms with the Mountain West on a one-year agreement that added six MWC opponents to each remaining Pac-12 school’s schedule this season.

As part of the agreement, the Mountain West included language that requires the Pac-12 to pay a fee of $10 million if a school left the MWC for the Pac-12, with escalators of $500,000 for each additional school.

“This action challenges an anticompetitive and unlawful ‘Poaching Penalty’ that the MWC imposed on the Pac-12 to inhibit competition for member schools in collegiate athletics,” the suit says. “The ‘Poaching Penalty’ saddles the Pac-12 with exorbitant and punitive monetary fees for engaging in competition by accepting MWC member schools into the Pac-12.”