San Diego State plans to notify the Mountain West Conference that it no longer intends to withdraw from the league, sources confirmed to CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd. The decision is a sharp turnaround just weeks after the Aztecs sent a letter to the conference outlining their intentions to leave the league while requesting an extension to provide official notice. Mountain West University denied the extension request, meaning that June 30 was the last day the school could file an official notice of withdrawal.
If the Aztecs don’t meet the June 30 deadline, the exit fee will rise from $16.5 million to $34 million. As Mountain West declined an extension and San Diego State could not find a suitable new home, the Aztecs seemed content to detour. SDSU initially cited “unexpected delays involving other collegiate athletic conferences” as the reason for requesting the extension.
Before the breaking news that San Diego State plans to stay with the Mountain West, dowdy sources said that SDSU officials were willing to “shake up the current realignment tsunami”. Dodd notes that the school’s attorneys wanted to go on record that San Diego State intends to leave Mountain West — at some point.
San Diego State was long considered a prime candidate for Pac-12 expansion; However, the Pac-12 had problems securing a new television rights deal. The league’s current agreement with ESPN expires on July 1, 2024, and the uncertainty has Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State weighing all of their future options, according to Dodd. The Pac-12 also has a fill-in slot for Southern California with both USC and UCLA scheduled to leave for the Big Ten in 2024.
Until the conference can sort that out, expansion is off the table. The Big 12 is actively looking for expansion teams, though a recent move by San Diego State indicates that the invitation never came.