Months after the courtroom drama and conference politics, the MWC and the Pac-12 reached a settlement necessary to secure the survival of the latter. After the major roadblock of the poaching penalty was finally lifted out of the way, the Pac-12 wasted no time in making it official that it is here to stay. The conference officially added 7 more programs on July 1, bringing its tally to 9.

Boise State, Colorado State, Texas State, Utah State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Gonzaga are now members of the conference. These seven join Washington State and Oregon State to comprise the new Pac-12 this fall.

The newly constructed Pac-12 made its comeback with 9 new programs; 5 were secured from the Mountain West Conference. Texas State became the eighth Pac-12 member from the Sun Belt Conference. They came as the savior to maintain the NCAA rule of eight programs in a conference. Gonzaga, from the West Coast Conference, also entered the program as a full-time member.

It was a long struggle, but the Pac-12 managed to achieve a remarkable turnaround despite being in the middle of legal battles. They have offered the programs three times the amount they received in their previous conferences. For Boise State and Gonzaga, they were scraping by with $3.5–5.7 million. Now their annual payout is expected to be $13.2 million. 

The Pac-12 was left to deal with an empty conference in 2023 after 10 teams left, leaving it with just two remaining members: Oregon State and Washington State. Desperate to find teams for the remaining members, the Pac-12 signed a temporary football scheduling alliance with the MWC. Per the contract, the Pac-12 paid the MWC around $14 million for a one-year scheduling partnership.

However, the MWC also added a ‘poaching’ clause to the agreement to stop the Pac-12 from taking its programs away. As per the clause, a $10 million penalty would be imposed on the first school, with an additional $500,000 for every other school acquired.

As the MWC feared, five of its schools defected to the Pac-12 in September 2024: Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State, Fresno State, and San Diego State. The MWC demanded $55 million in poaching penalties

The Pac-12 contested a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference to invalidate the $155 million in financial penalties. The breakdown was $55 million in poaching fees from the Pac-12, plus roughly $100 million in collective exit fees from the five departing schools.

Keker, Van Nest & Peters sued the MWC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Pac-12. The conference argued that these penalties were illegal and were blocking the programs from switching conferences, which is their fundamental right. Further, they agreed to sign the agreement out of a desperate need to get the programs to play for them.

MWC countered, arguing that the Pac-12 wasn’t forced to sign the agreement; it did so of its own will. When the court asked for internal emails from the MWC, they agreed to resolve the dispute out of court. While neither side disclosed the financial settlement publicly, internal reports suggest they reached a middle-ground compromise. Originally, MWC sought $155 million in total penalties, but it allegedly agreed to a range of $70 million to $80 million.