https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... int-pac-12WSU/OSU have filed a lawsuit seeking an emergency restraining order against George Kliavkoff and the Pac-12. Despite 10 members announcing departures for other conferences, WSU/OSU are left powerless because somehow those 10 schools still claim voting power. One of those 10 presidents warned WSU/OSU, "9 Members can declare the fate of the Conference at any time." This would not only mean those 10 presidents can dissolve the Pac-12 against WSU/OSU's will, but also divide the Pac-12 assets between 12 schools instead of leaving them to WSU/OSU.
The essence of Washington State and Oregon State's concerns, if the league's 12 schools formally meet, is that the current members could vote to dissolve or evenly distribute the remaining assets. Washington State and Oregon State consider themselves the only board members and are seeking to survey their options moving forward. They pointed to the conference's bylaws, which state that any notice of withdrawal from the league means a school "automatically cease(s) to be a member of the Pac-12 Board of Directors and shall cease to have the right to vote on any matter."
The meeting was scheduled, according to the legal filings, after Washington State president Kirk Schulz, the chair of the Pac-12 board of directors, declined to call a board meeting after a telephone conversation with Kliavkoff on or around Aug. 29. Schulz feared that Kliavkoff "would allow the withdrawing universities' former Board representatives to vote on a number of matters, even though they no longer have the right to vote on any matter," according to the legal documents.
In a supporting document, Schulz says he needs "urgent intervention" on whether the departing schools can hold a seat on the Pac-12 board and vote.
"The Pac-12 Conference and the Pac-12 Conference Board of Directors cannot resolve this dispute through internal means," Schulz says in the filing. "At its core, this is a dispute over who has the authority to act on behalf of the Pac-12 Conference. Only judicial intervention can resolve this dispute."
The filing includes a comment from one departing school, which is not named: "One representative from a departing Pac-12 member stated his view just two days ago that '9 Members can declare the fate of the Conference at any time.'"
The Pac-12 has seen 10 members leave since last summer, starting when UCLA and USC announced they would join the Big Ten in 2024. The complaint points out that the board seats and voting rights of those schools were immediately rescinded.
