Washington State filed for an emergency temporary restraining order against the Pac-12 and commissioner George Kliavkoff Friday, September 8th. The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Washington along with Oregon schools seek to stop all votes on league matters until there is legal clarity on who controls what is left of the conference. The Pac-12’s football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football in the nation.
The dispute is big and complicated.
“The Pac-12 Conference and the Pac-12 Conference Board of Directors cannot resolve this dispute through internal means,” Schulz said in the filing, according to ESPN. The Pac-12’s remaining assets are at the heart of the dispute, particularly since Pac-12 bylaws suggest the presidents at Oregon State and Washington State should be alone on the conference’s board of directors by virtue of other members giving formal notice of intent to exit the conference.
In a press release, Oregon State and Washington State officials said, “Ten schools have given notice that they are leaving the Pac‑12 for other conferences.” The filing stated, “Unless Defendants are enjoined from holding this meeting, the Pac-12 and the ten departing members will wrongfully seize control of the Conference in violation of the Bylaws and take steps that will cause irreparable harm to WSU and OSU.”
A judge ruled for Washington State and Oregon State stating that departing Pac-12 schools can’t hold meeting. At a hearing in Whitman County Superior Court in Washington, Judge Gary Libey made the ruling that a board of directors meeting scheduled for later this week with conference Commissioner George Kliavkoff and university leaders from 10 departing members cannot take place.
The first defections from the Pac-12 took place in June 2022, when USC and UCLA announced they would leave the conference to join the Big Ten in Summer 2024. Eight more schools announced intent to depart for other conferences this past summer. Oregon and Washington followed with Big Ten moves as well.
