The Mountain West lawsuit involving Commissioner Gloria Nevarez is actually two connected cases: a federal antitrust suit the Pac-12 filed in California and a separate exit-fee suit filed in Colorado by three departing schools that named Nevarez personally as a defendant. Both stemmed from the Pac-12’s decision to rebuild itself by pulling five schools out of the Mountain West in September 2024, which triggered contested “poaching penalties” and exit fees adding up to roughly $155 million. The parties announced an agreement in principle to settle on May 18, 2026, with terms kept confidential.
The Scheduling Agreement That Set Up the Fight
The Pac-12 was down to two members, Oregon State and Washington State, after eight schools left in 2023. To give those two teams football opponents for 2024, the Pac-12 signed a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West in December 2023 and paid $14 million for the games.
Section 7.01 of that agreement, titled “Termination Fees,” is the clause every later filing circled back to. It required the Pac-12 to pay the Mountain West $10 million if it recruited even one Mountain West school, plus $500,000 for each additional recruit. The clause lived on for two years past the deal’s expiration, potentially through August 2027. Poach every Mountain West member individually and the tab could hit $137.5 million. The Pac-12 later called this the “poison pill.” The only way out written into the contract itself: absorb the entire Mountain West at once, or wait for it to dissolve.
The Five Departures That Triggered the Penalties
Under new Commissioner Teresa Gould, the Pac-12 moved fast. On September 12, 2024, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Diego State announced they were leaving the Mountain West for the Pac-12 starting in 2026–27. Utah State followed on September 21, 2024.
Nevarez sent a demand letter for $43 million after the first four defections, rising to $55 million once Utah State joined. On top of that, the Mountain West’s bylaws imposed exit fees equal to three times a school’s annual conference distribution, roughly $18 million to $20 million per school, potentially doubled to $38 million for schools that gave less than a year’s notice. Combined, the Mountain West claimed it was owed upward of $150 million.
The Pac-12’s Federal Lawsuit
On September 24, 2024, the Pac-12 sued in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking a declaratory judgment that the poaching penalty was invalid. The case, Pac-12 Conference v. Mountain West Conference (No. 5:24-cv-06685), went to Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen.
The Pac-12 argued three things. First, that the penalty was a per se violation of federal antitrust law, functioning as a horizontal restraint on the movement of member schools. Second, that it violated California’s Unfair Competition Law because it existed only to lock Mountain West members in place. Third, that under ordinary contract law the fee was an unenforceable penalty, bearing “no reasonable relationship” to any actual harm and duplicating the exit fees already in the Mountain West’s bylaws.
The complaint also argued duress. With only two schools left and an urgent need for opponents, the Pac-12 said it had “little leverage” to push back on the Mountain West’s terms when it signed the scheduling agreement.
Nevarez’s Position and the Mountain West Counterclaims
Nevarez defended the penalty as a legitimate business protection, not a lock-in. “Our position is they’re valid because they are intended to help us fill the gap,” she said. “It’s not intended to prevent you from leaving. But it’s intended to help us right-size any negative financial impacts and recruit and attract new schools.” She noted that the Pac-12 had signed with “full acknowledgment and legal understanding of their obligations” and with “sophisticated legal counsel.”
In October 2025, the Mountain West filed counterclaims for breach of contract, promissory fraud, tortious interference, and unjust enrichment. Its theory was that the Pac-12 had signed the scheduling agreement while already planning to challenge the penalty clause, meaning it never intended to pay. The Mountain West sought $150 million.
The Colorado Exit-Fee Case Against Nevarez
The suit that puts Nevarez’s name directly on a caption was filed in Denver District Court on December 16, 2024, by Colorado State and Utah State, with Boise State joining later. Board of Governors of the Colorado State University System, et al. v. The Mountain West Conference and Gloria Nevarez (No. 2024CV33874) named her personally as a defendant.
The schools argued the December 2023 scheduling agreement already set “withdrawal fees” of $10 million to $15 million per school, and that Nevarez had acknowledged those fees were the “sole and exclusive remedy” for a school leaving to join the Pac-12. Stacking bylaw-based exit fees on top, they said, was double-dipping.
The complaint also aired governance allegations. It claimed Nevarez published revised bylaws on September 13, 2024, one day after the first departures, without proper notice or a board vote; held board meetings without a quorum; stripped departing schools of voting rights; and withheld distributions including NCAA grants and College Football Playoff revenue owed to Boise State. The schools also said Nevarez denied reports that Grand Canyon University was being added, then announced the addition after the departing schools had committed to leaving. She was named in her individual capacity on the theory that she “willfully disregarded” conference bylaws and made “affirmative, fraudulent misrepresentations.”
The Mountain West said it was “confident in our legal position” and would “vigorously defend” against the claims, adding that the exit-fee policies were ones the departing schools “helped develop and adopt.”
Key Rulings Before Settlement
On September 30, 2025, Judge van Keulen denied the Mountain West’s motion to dismiss the Pac-12’s antitrust claims. She rejected the argument that the Pac-12 lacked standing because it had voluntarily signed the deal, citing Epic Games v. Apple for the principle that the Sherman Act can reach contracts entered under economic pressure. She declined to decide at the pleading stage whether the fees amounted to a per se antitrust violation. She also flagged an internal tension in the agreement itself: it labeled the fees “liquidated damages” but avoided using the word “breach,” a wording issue she said would need fact-finding to sort out.
On March 27, 2026, van Keulen ruled on the Pac-12’s motion to dismiss the Mountain West’s counterclaims. She let the tortious interference and unjust enrichment claims go forward, rejecting the Pac-12’s characterization of Mountain West membership as an “at-will” arrangement. She dismissed the promissory fraud counterclaim as barred by the economic loss rule.
The May 2026 Settlement
On May 18, 2026, the Mountain West, the Pac-12, and the five departing schools announced an agreement in principle resolving both the California and Colorado suits. They asked the courts to stay the litigation for 90 days, through August 31, 2026, while final terms were drafted. A discovery hearing set for June 9 was vacated. The settlement amount has not been disclosed and is expected to stay sealed.
Net proceeds are designated for the seven schools that remained in the Mountain West through realignment. Under a pre-existing grant of media rights, the first $61 million collected is divided by formula: UNLV and Air Force each get 24.5%; Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, and Wyoming each get 11.5%; and Hawai’i gets 5%. Payments are due “as soon as practicable” after July 1, 2026, when the five departing schools officially join the Pac-12.
Who Gloria Nevarez Is
Nevarez became the Mountain West’s second commissioner on January 1, 2023. She played basketball at the University of Massachusetts, earned a law degree from Berkeley, and held senior administrative posts at UC Berkeley, San Jose State, the University of Oklahoma, and the Pac-12, where she was senior associate commissioner. She was commissioner of the West Coast Conference from 2018 to 2022 before moving to the Mountain West.
After the settlement, the Mountain West extended her contract through December 31, 2030. The conference also implemented a grant of media rights running through 2032, which Nevarez described as “litigation tested” and “lawsuit proof.”