Really the 2027 lawsuits is about the poaching penalty as the
Mountain West Conference is withholding distributions from its departing members,
Boise State,
Colorado State, Fresno St, San Diego Stand
Utah State.
The withheld funds started last year (FY 25 & FY 26) and will happen again this year so it is "two year hold of conf distributions"
Looking at the payouts from FY24 it is apparent that the MW will have a nest egg to share with their members even if they do not get the full poaching penalty of even a lesser amount.
FY24 MW Distro:
Boise St - 8.6M Two Year Value withheld (17.2M)
Utah St - 6.7M Two Year Value withheld (14.4M)
Fresno St - 6.6M Two Year Value withheld (13.2M)
San Diego St - 6.4M Two Year Value withheld (12.8M)
Col St - 6.2M Two Year Value withheld (12.4M)
I have heard the last two years of the TV deal pays out more so I would expect my numbers to be low, but anyways you can see the total of 70M to give away until the 2027 poaching lawsuit happens.
Percentage of Collected Fees
Air Force and UNLV-24.5% each
Nevada, New Mexico, San José State, and Wyoming- 11.5% each
Hawaiʻi-5%
Amount of the 70M given to schools:
Air Force and
UNLV - 17.25M each
Nevada, New Mexico, San José State, and Wyoming - 8M each
Hawai'i - 3.5M
Then the poaching fee will be divided up the same way after a final amount has been awarded. For example a judge could rule that $55M is to much and the total should only be $40M. Also in the other lawsuit they could make a judgement that the final exit fees for each school should not be 18M, it should be 15M. In that case the MWC would get 40M in poaching fees and the extra monies not with held bringing the total to 55M. Or another scenario would be MW over held each school by 1M. In that case from the 40M awarded the MW would have to deduct 5M, to give back from the departed members and then take the 35M and share the amount the same way they did in 2026.
Either way the Mountain West is not losing, it just has a delay for funds. Why you may ask, did WSU and OSU lose against the Original PAC12? Nope, so the MW isn't losing either.