Boise State to join lawsuit fighting multimillion-dollar Mountain West exit fees

Boise State is set to join two other Mountain West schools in a lawsuit against the league related to exit fees for their impending move to the reborn Pac-12 Conference.

On Wednesday, the Idaho State Board of Education approved the university’s request to enter litigation alongside Colorado State and Utah State.

The latter two schools filed a complaint against the Mountain West in a Colorado court on Monday, claiming that the conference and Commissioner Gloria Nevarez are withholding money owed to the five schools departing the Mountain West for the Pac-12.

Fresno State and San Diego State are also making the switch but have yet to join the lawsuit.

O’Melveny and Myers will represent Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State. The same law firm advised Stanford and UCLA on their conference moves to the ACC and Big Ten, respectively.

“The Conference is threatening to withhold tens of millions of dollars due to these universities — including millions due to Boise State for earning the third seed and a first-round bye in this season’s College Football Playoff — and refusing to reimburse them for postseason football costs, leaving little choice but to seek judicial relief,” O’Melveny partner Steve Olson, co-chair of the firm’s litigation department, said in a news release.

According to the complaint, the Mountain West has frozen out the five departing schools from board meetings and has promised money to the remaining seven conference members that is “owed” to the departing schools. The seven schools set to stay are UNLV, San Jose State, New Mexico, Hawaii, Air Force, Wyoming and Nevada.

The money in question relates to exit fees outlined in the Mountain West handbook. A resigning member providing more than one year of notice must pay “an exit fee an amount equal to three times the average per Member Institution Conference distribution payment for the year,” the handbook states.

The lawsuit said the conference is asking for between $19 million and $38 million per school.

The schools’ complaint also asserts that the Mountain West “secretly” amended the bylaws the day after multiple schools announced in September that they would leave for the Pac-12. However, the conference handbook’s most recent apparent update is December 2023.

The Mountain West released a statement earlier this week in which it said the legal action was “an inappropriate attempt to circumvent their clear financial obligations.”

Olson told the Idaho Statesman that O’Melvany “look(s) forward to pursuing the serious claims and concerns we have raised on behalf of these universities in the courtroom.”