Oregon State, Wazzu Pac-12 Control Held Up by WA Supreme Court

In a ruling that ensures the Pac-12’s 10 departing schools retain a voice on conference matters for at least the next few weeks, the Washington Supreme Court on Tuesday granted an emergency motion that puts on hold a preliminary injunction that would have given Oregon State University and Washington State University effectively total control over the conference and its assets.

Two weeks ago, Washington Judge Gary Libey granted a preliminary injunction in favor of OSU and WSU, the only two Pac-12 schools that aren’t leaving the conference next year. The injunction was set to go into effect on Nov. 20 and would have given OSU and WSU total control over conference assets and hundreds of millions of dollars in conference revenue used to run athletic programs. 

The Pac-12 and the University of Washington, along with support of the other nine departing schools, appealed. Now the injunction is on hold, pending further review by the Washington Supreme Court. 

Tuesday’s ruling means a temporary restraining order (TRO) put in place on Sept. 11 will remain in effect. The TRO prohibits the Pac-12’s Board of Directors from acting without the unanimous consent of all board members. In other words, the TRO means all 12 members must agree on a matter or the conference can’t act on it.

In a six-page order, the Washington Supreme Court reasoned the TRO is “the less disruptive temporary posture” since it “provides a mechanism for the board, representing all 12 schools, to continue business as usual, with a proviso to act with unanimity.” The court also referenced the “harshness of the preliminary injunction,” as it would have excluded current conference members from conference affairs. 

The legal dispute concerns whether a school announcing that it will leave the conference on a future date means it immediately forfeits its role in conference affairs. The two sides have offered conflicting interpretations of conference bylaws, with OSU and WSU highlighting how the 10 departing schools now have a conflict of interest: they’re joining rival Power Five conferences that compete with the Pac-12 over media rights and employees. 

But the 10 departing schools maintain they are still members and to exclude them could harm their employees and players. They also maintain that punishing a school for announcing its departure is a poorly-conceived incentive scheme, since it would encourage schools to wait until the last minute to announce a departure—a wait that would likely trigger greater disruption than a more transparent and deliberate process for departing. 

In a statement released to media, the 10 departing schools said, “the decision effectively ensures that all 12 current members will have an equal voice in determining how the revenue our schools earned this year is distributed and utilized while the court considers our arguments.”

The Washington Supreme Court noted that the two sides will have opportunities to file briefs by Dec. 12. 

While the legal saga plays out, the future of the Pac-12 remains in limbo. Unless the conference adds new members for the start of the 2024-25 academic year, the Pac-12 will become the Pac-2.