The Mountain West Conference has officially signed its future into place. On September 26, 2024, the remaining full-time members of the Mountain West signed a fully executed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) binding themselves through the 2031–32 academic year. It was meant to be a show of stability. But it may prove to be a mistake that locks the league into irrelevance just as college sports shift under its feet.
The 2026 Picture
The MOU went into effect just months before five longtime members—Boise State, San Diego State, Fresno State, Colorado State, and Utah State—announced plans to depart for the Pac-12 in 2026. In response, the Mountain West pivoted fast, expanding with:
UTEP (full-time)
Northern Illinois (football-only)
Grand Canyon (non-football)
UC Davis (non-football)
Hawai‘i (upgraded to full membership)
That leaves the 2026 Mountain West with the following full football-playing members: Air Force, UNLV, UTEP, New Mexico, San José State, Nevada, Wyoming, and Northern Illinois (football only). It now stretches from Hawai‘i to Illinois, with no clear regional identity, diminished football prestige, and a looming identity crisis in basketball.
The Grant of Rights That Could Haunt the Conference
The heart of the new MOU is a de facto Grant of Rights agreement. According to the document:
All participating schools agree to assign media rights through 2031–32 to the conference.
Schools that attempt to leave forfeit future bonuses, exit shares, and CFP revenue.
A school must provide notice by June 30 before departure and will owe up to $18 million in damages, depending on the timing.
Bonuses will be pooled and redistributed based on participation, with UNLV and Air Force receiving the most significant shares as new flagships.
At first glance, it appears to be a defensive move. After watching the Pac-12 collapse and the Big 12 devour the old Southwest, the Mountain West clung to survival. However, binding your best remaining schools into a restrictive structure only works if you're building toward a specific goal. Instead, it’s locking them into a lesser version of what once was.
Legal War With the Pac-12
The Pac-12 and Mountain West are now engaged in multiple legal disputes over poaching and exit fees. According to reports from The Athletic, CBS Sports, and The Mercury News, the lawsuits center on:
$55 million in claimed poaching penalties for the five departing schools.
Individual lawsuits from Colorado State, Utah State, and Boise State challenging the GOR’s financial enforcement.
The Pac-12 is attempting to mitigate payouts while finalizing a new TV deal and preparing to add at least one more full-time football member to meet NCAA requirements.
Mediation began in May 2025, with a federal judge serving as the mediator. A gag order is in place, but continued talks are considered a positive sign. Still, nothing has been finalized. As of June, the five departing schools had not formally resigned or signed Pac-12 media rights documents, leaving open the possibility, however slim, that the structure could still change.
The TV Deal Trap
Sources, including SBJ, MWCConnection, and the San Diego Union-Tribune, confirm that the Mountain West is currently negotiating a new media rights deal. But with the most valuable schools departing, the conference’s leverage is severely diminished.
The current MOU guarantees no media revenues or specific TV tiers. And unlike the AAC, which was able to sell itself as a consolidated Eastern product post-realignment, the new Mountain West is a geographic sprawl with no Top 25 football teams and only a handful of NCAA basketball contenders (UNLV, Nevada, Grand Canyon, New Mexico).
A plausible deal could end up being between $2–4 million per school per year, a steep drop from the $6–8 million range they were aiming for before the exodus. The best-case scenario now is a patchwork partnership with a streamer (Amazon? CW?) and some linear exposure on Fox or CBS Sports Network. The worst case? A rights deal too weak to keep UNLV and Air Force happy, igniting another round of instability.
What Comes Next
The irony of the MOU is that it may have boxed the league into precisely what it feared: irrelevance. While the Pac-12 continues to explore options for an eighth member—with Texas State, Tulane, or Rice being floated—the Mountain West clings to its patchwork fix.
UNLV is now locked in despite being the only school with real media market value and a rising football brand. The Air Force may thrive competitively, but it lacks a massive audience. Meanwhile, UTEP, NIU, and UC Davis bring minimal national pull.
This isn’t consolidation. It’s containment.
Unless the conference renegotiates or allows opt-outs post-mediation, it may be staring down seven more years of locked-in mediocrity while the rest of the sport moves forward.