Oregon State and Washington State are the only two schools with Pac-12 voting rights. (Photo by Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Washington State Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Oregon and Washington states in their fight for control of the Pac-12.
The court said Friday that it was revoking a stay it had put in place in October at the request of the University of Washington. Both Oregon State and Washington State attempted to be the only schools with voting rights in the conference after the ten other schools left for other conferences.
The stay came early fall at the request of the University of Washington as the court said it wanted a chance to give the Pac-12 battle a full review.
In early October, an Oregon and Washington state court judge gave control of the conference — and its entire assets, estimated at about $400 million — after granting the schools an injunction. The Whitman County Superior Court judge ruled that the two schools should be the only ones making conference decisions, with four moving to the Big Ten, four to the Big 12 and two to the ACC.
Friday's ruling affirms that decision and makes OSU and WSU the only two schools responsible for the Pac-12's revenue and assets. The decision is a significant victory for the two remaining schools, but ultimately a small one considering everything that has happened over the past 18 months. Oregon State and Washington State launched legal action earlier this fall because they fear the other schools could use their voting rights to dissolve the conference and take control of assets before they leave.
“We look forward to finding a path forward for the Pac-12 that is in the best interests of the conference and student-athletes,” Oregon State said in a statement at the time of the October decision in its favor. “Our intention is to make sound business decisions going forward while continuing to seek collaboration and consultation with the departing universities.”
The University of Washington — one of four schools headed to the Big Ten along with Oregon, UCLA and USC — then appealed to the state Supreme Court on behalf of the outgoing conference members, asking for a stay.
The two remaining schools argued that the withdrawing schools had lost their voting rights when they decided to leave the conference over the summer. UCLA and USC lost their voting rights in the conference after announcing they would leave for the Big Ten in the summer of 2022. The other eight schools found new conferences in the summer of 2023 after the Pac-12 failed to agree on a new media rights agreement.
The Pac-12's current media rights deal expires at the end of the 2023-24 school year, allowing relatively clean exits of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah to the Big 12, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten and Cal and Stanford to the ACC. The four Big 12 teams, plus Oregon and Washington, made their decisions first this summer, and Cal and Stanford then moved only to find they were a poor geographical fit in the ACC.