Latest news with #GloriaNevarez
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Mountain West Reached Revenue High Ahead of Pac-12 Showdown
The Mountain West Conference came close to cracking nine-figure revenue in fiscal year 2024, pulling in a record-setting $92.8 million—up from $78.2 million the year prior—just as it entered a high-stakes, increasingly adversarial engagement with the Pac-12. According to the conference's latest tax filings obtained by Sportico, commissioner Gloria Nevarez earned $1.02 million in base compensation during her first year on the job. Nevarez, who took over in January 2023 from long-serving predecessor Craig Thompson, has since presided over a volatile period for the league. Advertisement More from Total expenditures for the year hit $96.2 million, resulting in a year-over-year decline in net assets. A Mountain West spokesperson attributed much of the shortfall to an atypical distribution to San Diego State, which received both its FY23 and FY24 payments—totaling $12.9 million—within the same fiscal period. Most other member institutions received over $6 million, with Boise State ($8.7 million) and Hawaii ($2.1 million) serving as financial outliers. The league's legal expenses for the fiscal year totaled $756,741—costs incurred before it began litigating with the Pac-12. Among the conference's highest-paid independent contractors in FY24 were Wasserman Media Group ($1.08 million for media rights consulting), law firm Wilkie Farr & Gallagher ($748,516) and Huron Consulting ($346,105). The past fiscal cycle closed just before Washington State and Oregon State commenced a temporary football scheduling agreement with Mountain West schools for the 2024–25 season—a move that sparked further conflict when five MWC programs, including Boise State and San Diego State, later announced plans to join the Pac-12. In response, the Mountain West invoked its so-called 'poaching penalties,' a clause in the scheduling pact that imposed $10 million damages on the Pac-12 for bringing aboard a MWC school, with escalating charges for each additional member. Advertisement This led to a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by the Pac-12 last September, alleging the penalties violated antitrust laws and that the conference had been unfairly preyed upon in its 'weakened state.' The two sides are now in mediation over a financial dispute that, on paper, could total as much as $145 million in obligations from the Pac-12 to the MWC. Amid last year's upheaval, the Mountain West awarded full membership to both Hawaii and UTEP, added Northern Illinois as a football-only member starting in 2026, and welcomed UC Davis as a full, non-football member for the 2026–27 academic year. The newly configured conference also retained Air Force, UNLV, New Mexico, Nevada, San Jose State and Wyoming, each of which committed to remain last year. Best of Sign up for Sportico's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Can the Mountain West fend Pac-12 poaching efforts off for good? ‘We have a clear future'
This was supposed to be a key week for the Mountain West. It hoped to land at least one team in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA men's basketball tournament after securing four bids, the most of any league outside the 'power' conferences. Instead, a Maryland buzzer beater against Colorado State shut the league out of the second weekend. Advertisement The Mountain West also planned to make its case in court to dismiss the Pac-12's lawsuit seeking to negate $55 million owed in poaching fees. Instead, the two leagues agreed earlier this month to stay the case and look into mediation. The Mountain West will also enter mediation with its schools departing for the Pac-12 over nearly $100 million in exit fees, as part of a separate case. What is the state of the Mountain West right now? Commissioner Gloria Nevarez feels pretty good, all things considered. Although five schools are on their way out to the Pac-12 in 2026, the Mountain West weathered the storm and found stability by rebuilding quickly last fall, adding four schools and locking a new conference together with a grant of rights. 'The sentiment is really positive,' Nevarez told The Athletic last month, around the time the mediation discussions began. 'We have a clear future.' In December, the MW became the first Group of 5 conference to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, as Boise State earned the No. 3 seed and played competitively in a 31-14 loss to Penn State. The league's four NCAA Tournament bids this month matched the ACC. 'Every time there's a massive change in the postseason football format, the Mountain West has always broken through,' Nevarez said, noting Utah's BCS-busting 2004 season and Boise State's Fiesta Bowl win in 2014, the first year of the New Year's Six bowl structure. Now comes the next chapter. The Mountain West Conference was formed by a breakaway from the WAC nearly 20 years ago. But last year's breakaway from within nearly tore it apart. Nothing around Pac-12 mediation has been set yet, according to the court docket, and both the Mountain West and Pac-12 still say they're in the right, as sides usually do. But they'll probably settle somewhere in the middle, which means the MW could receive something less than $150 million for the chaos its defectors caused. Advertisement How real is the Mountain West's stability, especially with the Pac-12 still searching for at least one more school to add by mid-2026? First, it's important to remember how we got here. In December 2023, the Mountain West threw a lifeline to Oregon State and Washington State following the Pac-12's collapse by creating a 2024 football scheduling agreement, through which Oregon State and Washington State paid the conference $14 million to play six MW teams each last fall. The leagues also talked about a potential merger, and the scheduling agreement included poaching fees that would protect the Mountain West if the Pac-12 rebuilt itself using MW schools but didn't bring in everyone. But by the time the deadline for renewal came around last summer, relations had soured. The Pac-12 schools wanted to lower the price they were paying for the games; the Mountain West countered to increase it. Two weeks after the renewal deadline passed, the Pac-12 added four Mountain West schools (Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State) in an overnight move that rocked the conference. That didn't get the Pac-12 to the eight schools it needed, per NCAA bylaws, but adding more MW schools remained on the table. Nevarez and Mountain West leaders rallied to hold it together. They wrote up an agreement, but Utah State jumped to the Pac-12, requiring the creation of another agreement anchoring the league around UNLV and Air Force. This time it worked, thanks to those two schools receiving larger paydays than the rest of the conference from the more than $150 million expected to come to the league through exit fees for the departures and poaching fees from the Pac-12. 'It was about communicating and holding the rest together,' Nevarez said. 'We needed to provide them a reason and a vision and path forward to stay.' Advertisement That Mountain West agreement, obtained by The Athletic, lays out how some of that $150-ish million would be spent: Of the first $61 million, 24.5 percent each would go to UNLV and Air Force. Another $21 million would be split the same way. The next $18 million would go into a recruiting reserve to cover expenses for identifying and luring new members. In addition, the Mountain West agreed to continue to hold its basketball tournaments at UNLV and plans to move its headquarters from Colorado Springs to Las Vegas. 'It was largely financial,' Nevarez said of convincing schools to stay. 'There were promises of financial media contracts on the Pac-12 side, but they were speculative. I tried to present to our schools the exit fees and a media estimate of what we could get. The schools that stayed agreed with it.' That money is vital for a place like UNLV, which is somewhere near $30 million in debt. Athletic director Erick Harper recently told the school's board of regents that UNLV only has enough money for the first two years of new football coach Dan Mullen's five-year contract. (Harper said later that the school could fulfill its contracts.) It also just made a men's basketball change, hiring ESPN analyst and former Georgia Tech/Memphis coach Josh Pastner. The Mountain West realignment money has not yet been allocated for the school's budget. 'Once we get the final numbers from the conference office, we will make these adjustments and tell you exactly what we feel and plan to go toward the deficit and what will go into operating,' Harper told the board. Late last year, the Pac-12 sued over the poaching fees, saying they were forced upon Oregon State and Washington State at a vulnerable time. Some departing schools also sued over the Mountain West's exit fees. The Mountain West disagreed, and the sides will soon discuss a settlement, a legal back-and-forth that has become the norm in conference realignment. What if the Mountain West — and therefore UNLV — doesn't get all that it's owed? It's reasonable to expect any settlement would leave the league taking in less than $150 million. The Pac-12 still needs at least one more school, and UNLV's name continues to float around as a possibility. San Diego State athletic director JD Wicker said recently the Pac-12's new media rights deal could be completed by the end of March. Industry sources believe it could be closer to or after the Final Four in April, and further expansion by one or more schools could soon follow. Advertisement The Mountain West maintains that its new grant of rights is rock-solid, regardless of the financial specifics. The document says that if any provision becomes invalid or unenforceable, it doesn't invalidate the agreement. That would seem to lock UNLV in. Harper's public comments didn't indicate a change of plans. So that's the situation, for now. After holding itself together last fall, the Mountain West backfilled quickly, adding the rest of Hawaii's non-football sports, UTEP in all sports, Grand Canyon and UC Davis in non-football sports and then Northern Illinois as a football-only member. A quicker rebuild made those already in the league more comfortable. A path has been set. 'The Mountain West has great leadership,' NIU athletic director Sean Frazier said. 'They've gone through a hellacious transition and weathered the storm. They bonded together and sold the dream.' The waves out west are less choppy than they were six months ago, but they're not fully calm yet. The Pac-12's media rights deal and subsequent final conference realignment moves might impact the Mountain West, or they might not. The Mountain West has lost heavyweights before and had new brands step forward and thrive. It hopes for a similar trajectory after these months of turbulence. 'If you look at the history of the Mountain West, we were the league of BYU, Utah, TCU,' Nevarez said. 'Schools come here and rise to the top if they put their minds to it and invest. There is a lot of opportunity here moving forward.' — The Athletic's Chris Kamrani contributed reporting.
Fox Sports
29-01-2025
- Business
- Fox Sports
Commissioner doubles down on Mountain West's commitment to remain viable after 5 teams leave in 2026
Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez issued a statement Wednesday reiterating the conference's commitment to remaining viable when five members leave for a rebuilt Pac-12 next year. 'A good deal of speculation has recently been offered by various media outlets regarding the current and future status of the Mountain West, and other collegiate athletic conferences," Nevarez said. 'While I cannot and will not comment on other leagues, I can share some facts about the Mountain West.' Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Wyoming and Hawaii have executed a grant of rights agreement that binds the schools together through the conference via television rights from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2032. Those seven schools also are 'successfully executing a future membership strategy' that will ensure the stability of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026, and beyond, Nevarez said, and pursuing a media rights agreement that would begin July 1, 2026. Hawaii will become a member in all sports starting in 2026-27 after having been a football-only member. Also in 2026, UTEP joins as a full member and Northern Illinois as a football-only member. UC Davis and Grand Canyon are joining in some sports in 2026. Hawaii's upgraded membership and the addition of UTEP gives the Mountain West eight full members for 2026-27, the threshold required to meet the NCAA minimum for remaining a Football Bowl Subdivision conference and being eligible for the College Football Playoff. The Mountain West has been rebuilding since Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Utah State agreed to join the Pac-12, which is trying to restock after all but two of its schools left for other conferences last summer. Nevarez said the conference is confident it will prevail in litigation with the Pac-12. The Pac-12 in September filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to declare the Mountain West's demand for a $55 million payment for poaching five schools an antitrust violation. The Mountain West filed a motion asking the lawsuit be dismissed, and a hearing is scheduled in March in San Francisco. ___ AP college football: and recommended in this topic
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Commissioner doubles down on Mountain West's commitment to remain viable after 5 teams leave in 2026
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez issued a statement Wednesday reiterating the conference's commitment to remaining viable when five members leave for a rebuilt Pac-12 next year. 'A good deal of speculation has recently been offered by various media outlets regarding the current and future status of the Mountain West, and other collegiate athletic conferences," Nevarez said. 'While I cannot and will not comment on other leagues, I can share some facts about the Mountain West.' Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Wyoming and Hawaii have executed a grant of rights agreement that binds the schools together through the conference via television rights from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2032. Those seven schools also are 'successfully executing a future membership strategy' that will ensure the stability of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026, and beyond, Nevarez said, and pursuing a media rights agreement that would begin July 1, 2026. Hawaii will become a member in all sports starting in 2026-27 after having been a football-only member. Also in 2026, UTEP joins as a full member and Northern Illinois as a football-only member. UC Davis and Grand Canyon are joining in some sports in 2026. Hawaii's upgraded membership and the addition of UTEP gives the Mountain West eight full members for 2026-27, the threshold required to meet the NCAA minimum for remaining a Football Bowl Subdivision conference and being eligible for the College Football Playoff. The Mountain West has been rebuilding since Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Utah State agreed to join the Pac-12, which is trying to restock after all but two of its schools left for other conferences last summer. Nevarez said the conference is confident it will prevail in litigation with the Pac-12. The Pac-12 in September filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to declare the Mountain West's demand for a $55 million payment for poaching five schools an antitrust violation. The Mountain West filed a motion asking the lawsuit be dismissed, and a hearing is scheduled in March in San Francisco. ___ AP college football: and The Associated Press
Associated Press
29-01-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Commissioner doubles down on Mountain West's commitment to remain viable after 5 teams leave in 2026
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez issued a statement Wednesday reiterating the conference's commitment to remaining viable when five members leave for a rebuilt Pac-12 next year. 'A good deal of speculation has recently been offered by various media outlets regarding the current and future status of the Mountain West, and other collegiate athletic conferences,' Nevarez said. 'While I cannot and will not comment on other leagues, I can share some facts about the Mountain West.' Air Force, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, Wyoming and Hawaii have executed a grant of rights agreement that binds the schools together through the conference via television rights from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2032. Those seven schools also are 'successfully executing a future membership strategy' that will ensure the stability of the Mountain West through June 30, 2026, and beyond, Nevarez said, and pursuing a media rights agreement that would begin July 1, 2026. Hawaii will become a member in all sports starting in 2026-27 after having been a football-only member. Also in 2026, UTEP joins as a full member and Northern Illinois as a football-only member. UC Davis and Grand Canyon are joining in some sports in 2026. Hawaii's upgraded membership and the addition of UTEP gives the Mountain West eight full members for 2026-27, the threshold required to meet the NCAA minimum for remaining a Football Bowl Subdivision conference and being eligible for the College Football Playoff. The Mountain West has been rebuilding since Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Utah State agreed to join the Pac-12, which is trying to restock after all but two of its schools left for other conferences last summer. Nevarez said the conference is confident it will prevail in litigation with the Pac-12. The Pac-12 in September filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to declare the Mountain West's demand for a $55 million payment for poaching five schools an antitrust violation. The Mountain West filed a motion asking the lawsuit be dismissed, and a hearing is scheduled in March in San Francisco.
