San Diego State and the Mountain West Conference are at loggerheads as the Aztecs try to mitigate their failure to make it out of the league. The conference is withholding a $6.6 million distribution and banning San Diego State officials from meetings while the league decides whether the Aztecs can be members of the conference, according to documents obtained by San Diego Union-Tribune. $6.6 million was withheld as a way to cover the exit fee that MWC says SDSU owes the league.
At the heart of the conflict is a Message has been sent By Adela de la Torre, President of San Diego State, to the convention on June 13. Mountain West deemed it official notice that the Aztecs were leaving the league, while the school claims it was only notice of the opening of contact but not final notice that a decision was made.
In the letter, the Aztecs wrote to “formally notify that San Diego State intends to resign” from the Mountain West and wanted to discuss potential payment plans and a longer schedule for the program to provide final notice as the school awaits a presumed Pac-12 invitation. Per conference bylaws, the $16.5 million acquisition jumps. to $34 million if the notice is served later than July 1.
After two weeks, San Diego State chose to reverse course It remains in the conference as the Pac-12 remains deadlocked amid tense media rights negotiations. However, in an additional letter from Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez, the conference held that the Aztecs had given official notice—meaning that San Diego State now owed the league nearly $17 million. San Diego State’s membership status will be discussed at a board meeting on July 17, which will not include de la Torre per MWC regulations.
The Mountain West’s tough stance could be a long-term negotiating strategy as San Diego State continues to look down on the Power Five. While the Aztecs remain in the league for now, there is still a chance that the program will try to break out in the coming years. This is Nevarez’s first major conflict to be overseen after taking over as the second commissioner in Mountain West history on January 1, 2023.
The fight is the latest casualty in the Pac-12’s media rights negotiations, which have dragged on much longer than expected. The league is negotiating with both linear and streaming television partners as the current agreement with ESPN and Fox expires on July 1, 2024. Every other Power Five conference has a television deal closed through the end of the contract. San Diego State likely approached the MWC with a proposed notice later in the hopes that the Pac-12 can give them clarity over the next month.
Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkov was adamant that any expansion plans for the conference would come only after a media rights agreement was signed. San Diego State was a high priority team for the Pac-12 as the league’s pair of Southern California programs, UCLA and USC, lost to the Big Ten on July 1, 2024.
The Aztecs program is the only other FBS program in the region, and it has begun operating as a sports division in recent years. In the past decade, San Diego State has won two conference championships and two additional Division I football titles. The Aztecs also made headlines after a shock run in the Men’s National Basketball Tournament in 2023. The Mountain West will earn more than $10 million over the next six years in March mad revenue shares.