SDSU’s Intention and MWC’s Response
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – San Diego State and the Mountain West conference are doing their jets and sharks routine again.
On June 13, San Diego State administrators sent the first of what would become a series of back-and-forth letters to Mountain West officials. The letter stated San Diego State’s “intent” to leave the conference. In this initial letter, SDSU also “would like to ask for a one-month extension [beyond the June 30 deadline] given unforeseen delays involving other collegiate athletic conferences beyond our control”; it also requested a dialogue about the exit fee “with full consideration of the value added from recent participation in the NCAA Division 1 basketball championship game.”
Then, Mountain West wrote back: no extension, no discussion. And Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez interpreted the SDSU intent to resign as an actual resignation, adding in her June 14 rebuttal “I hereby confirm receipt on June 13, 2023 of your notice of resignation”.
SDSU to Mountain West on June 15: “Our letter…was not the official notice of resignation from the MWC…”
Mountain West to SDSU on June 16: Nope, you resigned.
So now what?
The June 30 deadline has passed and the Mountain West is ready to collect its $17 million exit fee from San Diego State. Per the MWC guidelines, the conference is withholding SDSU’s $6.6 million that is due from its media deal; the conference is considering the $6.6 million the first exit fee installment.
After weeks of posturing – and correspondence that reads like lines from Hamilton’s “Your Obedient Servant” (e.g. “Thank you for the opportunity to speak”; “I would like to thank you for your consideration and professionalism”; “It has been an absolute joy to collaborate…”) – who are the real winners and losers from this whole mess?
Winners: Navigating Through the Turmoil
– Sports Journalists: What a great time to cover college athletics. In a time of year that usually is bereft of college sports news, Mountain West and San Diego State may keep college athletics and its ridiculousness in the news until the start of football season.
– San Diego State: We may get to July 1 and see that the Mountain West has inadvertently done SDSU a gigantic favor. Like, a ~$17 million favor. The Pac-12 could very well be just days away from announcing its new media deal; July 21 is Pac-12 football media day and the next date circled on calendars for potential news. If the Pac-12 can get its media deal announced, have its member schools on board then expansion could still potentially be announced later this summer. If that happens and SDSU gets an invite, the Mountain West will have saved the school a lot of money. Now, without being bound to the Mountain West, SDSU will have very little (i.e. zero) negotiating power with the Pac-12 or Big 12 – but the reality is that even a partial media rights deal from either conference would surely dwarf what the school has been receiving from the Mountain West. All that being said, lots of “ifs” in the above paragraph.
Losers: Facing the Repercussions
– Mountain West Conference: You have got to respect that tough stance that new MWC commissioner Gloria Nevarez has taken. She will not let her conference be used until something better comes along (and by now we’ve all heard the relationship analogies). That being said, it is likely that the Mountain West conference has either 1) cost itself an additional ~$17 million in exit fees or 2) an additional athletic season (2024-25) of SDSU athletics, including its two revenue generating sports in football and men’s basketball. The MWC may find itself wishing it had held onto Aztec basketball as long as humanly possible, especially with Coach Dutcher and Co. loading up with another batch of talented freshmen and transfers.
– SDSU Recruiting Coaches: Said one former SDSU administrator speaking on the condition of anonymity, “Coaches and administrators on campus have been talking about joining a Power 5 conference for quite some time. It may be tough explaining to top-tier recruits and their parents why, in almost a year, there has been no progress and there is no news. From what I’m told, it’s a topic of conversation on every [campus] visit and every phone call.”
– SDSU Scheduling Coaches: Said that same administrator, “In executing non-conference schedules, coaches don’t know if they will be facing a Mountain West conference schedule, a Pac-12 conference schedule or a Big 12 conference schedule. It doesn’t sound like there is much communication with the staff as far as timeline and who to schedule or not schedule.” Typically, Mountain West and Pac-12 schools make for high quality, regional non-conference matchups; but since teams from the same conference cannot schedule in the non-conference season, scheduling is…awkward at the moment.