Mountain West Reached Revenue High Ahead of Pac-12 Showdown
The Mountain West Conference came close to splitting nine-figure profits in fiscal year 2024, drawing in a record-setting $92.8 million– up from $78.2 million the year prior– just as it went into a high-stakes, significantly adversarial engagement with the Pac-12.
According to the conference’s newest tax filings gotten by Sportico, commissioner Gloria Nevarez made $1.02 million in base compensation during her very first year on the job. Nevarez, who took control of in January 2023 from long-serving predecessor Craig Thompson, has since presided over a volatile duration for the league.
Overall expenses for the year hit $96.2 million, resulting in a year-over-year decrease in net properties. A Mountain West spokesperson associated much of the deficiency to an atypical distribution to San Diego State, which got both its FY23 and FY24 payments– amounting to $12.9 million– within the exact same financial period. Many other member institutions got over $6 million, with Boise State ($8.7 million) and Hawaii ($2.1 million) functioning as financial outliers.
The league’s legal costs for the amounted to $756,741– expenses incurred before it began prosecuting with the Pac-12. Among the conference’s highest-paid independent specialists 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 began a short-lived football scheduling contract with Mountain West schools for the 2024– 25 season– a move that triggered more conflict when 5 MWC programs, including Boise State and San Diego State, later revealed plans to join the Pac-12. In action, the Mountain West invoked its so-called “poaching penalties,” a stipulation 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.
This resulted in a federal antitrust lawsuit filed by the Pac-12 last September, alleging the charges violated antitrust laws which the conference had been unjustly 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 responsibilities from the Pac-12 to the MWC.
In the middle of last year’s turmoil, the Mountain West granted complete 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 freshly set up conference also retained Air Force, UNLV, New Mexico, Nevada, San Jose State and Wyoming, each of which devoted to remain last year.