Everyone wondered if it would happen. It did not happen — not by the June 30 deadline, at least.
San Diego State University has, according to Pete Thamel of ESPN, chosen to stay in the Mountain West Conference instead of leaving before the midnight (Mountain time) deadline on Friday, June 30. The Aztecs were on the hook for an extra $17.5 million if they did not leave the Mountain West before the deadline but then left after June 30. Presumably, the school wants to not only avoid that larger exit fee, but also the base exit fee.
San Diego State would have needed to pay a $16.5 million exit fee for leaving the Mountain West by June 30. That fee was believed to be at or near $34 million if the Aztecs make a decision to leave after the June 30 deadline.
San Diego State is doing something normal in the industry, as opposed to leaving one conference without having a formal invitation from another conference. SDSU was not invited to the Pac-12 (at least not by June 30) because the conference and commissioner George Kliavkoff have not yet finalized a media rights deal. The Pac-12 had to secure that package and consider the value of SMU in the equation before it extended San Diego State an invitation … or at least, that’s the prevailing thought in the industry.
We have to wait and see if the Pac-12 media rights deal, once it is eventually agreed to, will gain a price point which will satisfy current Pac-12 members, and if that rights deal has details and clauses which shed more light on why San Diego State has chosen — for now — to stay in the Mountain West.
Stay tuned.
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