Pivotal preliminary injunction hearing awaits Pac-12 Conference schools

After both sides filed hundreds of pages of court documents in recent weeks, the pivotal preliminary injunction hearing Tuesday afternoon could finally provide clarity on whether Oregon State and Washington State will control assets within and governance of the crumbled Pac-12.

Whitman County (Washington) Superior Court Judge Gary Libey will preside over the hearing, the next step in the lawsuit filed by the remaining Pac-2 schools against the Pac-12 and its commissioner, George Kliavkoff.

At stake is control over millions of dollars – including some $60 million in NCAA tournament financial units – and all-important voting power on the league’s board.

What’s in filing against Pac-12?

In a Nov. 2 court filing, Washington attorneys contended: “This lawsuit is not just about the Pac-12’s future, but also its present. The Pac-12 currently has 12 member schools that are earning hundreds of millions of dollars for the Conference this 2023-24 academic/athletic year. 

“If they [OSU, WSU] seize sole control of the Board, they will have control of that revenue earned by all 12 member schools. They have said publicly that they are looking to add schools from conferences that would require the Pac-12 to pay them tens of millions in exit fees.”

However, OSU and WSU assert that the league’s own commissioner repeatedly established that the 10 other schools forfeited their voting power by announcing forthcoming departures. 

An Oct. 25 motion by OSU and WSU included a trove of documents, including two sworn declarations by Kliavkoff stating USC and UCLA were removed from the board after their notice of withdrawal in the summer of 2022 when the Bruins and Trojans announced forthcoming departures to the Big Ten.

That motion also includes a text message from Kliavkoff to a reporter on Aug. 5, the day after realignment whittled the league down to just four remaining schools.

Kliavkoff: “As of today we have 4 board members.”

Both parties are engaged in mediation talks.

But if Libey grants the preliminary injunction, the Huskies will request the court stay the order to maintain the status quo while Washington seeks review in the Washington Supreme Court. It also will request that OSU and WSU cannot use net revenues from the 2023-24 year to, among other things, add to the conference effective after Aug. 1, 2024.