The Mountain West, sources said, felt protected by its bylaws and a poaching fee included in a football scheduling agreement it signed with the Pac-12 in December. To leave the conference, a school is required to pay roughly $18 million with two years of notice and $36 million with a one-year notice. And if the Pac-12 accepted a Mountain West school as a new member, the Pac-12 would be required to pay a $10 million fee, with escalators of $500,000 more for each additional school. (The four-school fee for Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State is $43 million.)
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At the time, the idea that in less than a year the Pac-12 would be willing to pay roughly $115 million for one-third of the Mountain West seemed unrealistic. For Mountain West leadership, that remained the case in July.