Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez said a theme this year is \u201cstaying in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The notion is to remain focused on the 2025-26 school year and not look ahead to a major membership shakeup or be distracted by a pair of pending lawsuits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to staying in the moment for this season and celebrating to the fullest,\u201d Nevarez said at Mountain West football media days in Las Vegas, adding, \u201cAs change continues to impact our industry, we stand ready to meet those opportunities in alignment with our mission and values.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five Mountain West schools \u2014 San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and Utah State \u2014 are leaving to join the reconstituted Pac-12. The Mountain West has backfilled with Grand Canyon University, Hawaii (in all sports; the Rainbow Warriors have long been football-only members of the MW), Northern Illinois, UTEP and UC Davis.<\/p>\n
Grand Canyon is joining the MW immediately in all sports but football; the Lopes don\u2019t play the sport. The other schools join next year. Northern Illinois is football-only and UC Davis will be a non-football member.<\/p>\n
Nevarez said the league is going to \u201cpause right now as far as additional membership.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNever say never,\u201d she said, \u201cbut we really want to get through our media rights negotiation, take a deep breath and then we\u2019ll readdress the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement two weeks ago that Grand Canyon would immediately join the Mountain West was met with more than a little grumbling from departing schools.<\/p>\n
Both SDSU and Boise State issued releases on the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile SDSU remains an active member of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026,\u201d a university statement said, \u201cthe university was not consulted or permitted to vote on the early invitation to Grand Canyon University, which is surprising and disappointing given prior representations that the Mountain West and its Commissioner made to SDSU and the negative impact this addition will have on already-planned athletic competition schedules for this academic year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will need to evaluate this announcement and make adjustments due to this addition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boise State said the decision \u201csignificantly and negatively impacts schedules, opportunities, and budgets of Boise State and the other departing universities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevarez said the Mountain West is \u201ccovering any costs of change fees to schedules.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as not being consulted or permitted to vote on Grand Canyon\u2019s early invitation, Mountain West bylaws allow voting rights to be rescinded when schools announce their departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you give notice, you no longer have a vote or say on the board,\u201d Nevarez said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of Conference 101.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, as one person mentioned during the meetings: \u201cNone of the schools leaving consulted with the conference before leaving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The divorce is complicated by exit fees and poaching fees totaling nearly $150 million.<\/p>\n
A pair of lawsuits between the Mountain West and departing members and the MW and Pac-12 were combined into a 60-day \u201cglobal\u201d mediation in May. On the eve of media days last week, news broke that the sides could not reach an agreement and will proceed to court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe proposed it, and it\u2019s definitely an effective way to resolve disputes, so we gave it a shot,\u201d said Nevarez, who did not elaborate on reasons why an agreement could not be reached. \u201cI\u2019m not able to comment on the mediation; it\u2019s confidential.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nevarez did say \u201cwe\u2019re really confident in our legal position and we\u2019re committed to resolving these things as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s best for everyone, the student-athletes, schools, leagues to move on,\u201d she said. \u201cOur commitment is to get through this as quick as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The sides are expected in court in September when a Mountain West motion to dismiss is to be heard.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: July 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM PDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez said a theme this year is \u201cstaying in the moment.\u201d The notion is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":79219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,1369,1370,3549,7264,18257,62,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-79218","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-sports","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sdsu-aztecs","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114888207471439059","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}