Oregon State and Washington State reached a settlement with the departing 10 PAC-12 schools on Thursday afternoon, ending three months of ongoing litigation.
The settlement comes after the Washington State Supreme Court declined to review the appeal of the lower court’s decision on the ruling that established giving full control of the conference to Oregon State and Washington State.
The two schools (OSU and WSU) will have control over the remaining PAC-12 conference monetary assets and future revenues beyond the 2023-24 academic year.
As a part of the settlement agreement, the departing 10 schools will forfeit a portion of their revenue distributions over the remainder of the 2023-24 academic year and provide guarantees against future liabilities according to Oregon State University president Jayathi Murthy and Washington State University President Kirk Schulz in a joint statement.
The amount forfeited was not revealed in the settlement but according to Jon Wilner, the amount is likely based on the $420 million in revenue this year the PAC-12 is expected to generate. If divided equally a full share would earn each school $35 million, but according to Wilner, the departing 10 schools likely will forfeit between $5 million and $10 million this year.
The guarantees that departing 10 schools must give both Oregon State and Washington State cover any expenses with any lawsuits the PAC-12 Conference may face or if PAC-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff is fired without cause.
The forfeited money and monetary assets from the PAC-12 help both schools to support their athletics departments as a two-team conference and potentially rebuild the PAC-12 conference in 2026.
However, even with the money that both schools now have in 2024 in their athletics budgets, there won’t be a financial windfall for the schools according to OSU President Jayathi Murthy.
“The loss of the Pac-12 media rights deal means that our financial projections for 2025 and beyond remain the same, and conference revenues alone cannot make up the more than $40 million annual gap in OSU Athletics funding caused by the departing universities,” Murthy said in a statement to the OSU community.
“We continue to need a combination of legislative, institutional, and philanthropy support to sustain the program and put OSU in a stronger position for the next potential rounds of conference realignment.”
Murthy added that when the Oregon state legislature returns to session in February, they plan to ask for support from state legislators while they simultaneously chart a path forward for OSU athletics programs afloat throughout the changes brought on by conference realignment.
Earlier this month, Oregon State football announced a partnership with the Mountain West Conference for scheduling. The other 10 athletic programs from Oregon State will compete in the West Coast Conference and gymnastics, men’s rowing, wrestling, and indoor and outdoor track and field will continue to compete in the PAC-12.
Oregon State baseball is currently undecided on whether it’ll be a member of a conference or go independent.