The University of New Mexico is among seven schools to receive a payout from the Mountain West Conference following a legal settlement with former and current members of the NCAA Division I conference. The payout agreement concludes a legal dispute that began in 2023, when five of the Mountain West conference’s member institutions moved to the Pac-12.
The sports business publication Sportico reports that the five departing schools must pay the Mountain West a total of $49 million. That sum is about half of what the Mountain West Conference originally sought in the case.
UNM’s exact share of that amount isn’t immediately clear, though Nevada Sports Net reports that UNM is slated to receive 11.5% of the payout. That amounts to a little more than $5.6 million. Other Mountain West institutions receiving payouts include Air Force, Nevada, Nevada-Las Vegas, San Jose State, and Wyoming.
The NCAA Division I realignment began with Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big XII in 2021. By 2024, 10 of the Pac-12’s members had left..
The remaining 2 members of the conference – Oregon State and Washington State, sought to keep the circuit alive by adding other western schools. Mountain West members Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and Utah State left the conference for a revamped Pac-12.
A cavalcade of legal complaints followed, with the Pac-12 and its new constituents objecting to the Mountain West’s poaching fees and exit fees, respectively. The various parties went to mediation and finally settled matters this month.
Today, the Mountain West conference has more than replaced those schools that left, losing five members and picking up six. So his year, 10 teams will play football in the Mountain West, with new members North Dakota State, Northern Illinois, Hawai’i, and the University of Texas-El Paso.
Hawai’i and UTEP are familiar foes for New Mexico. The Lobos competed against rival UTEP in the old Western Athletic Conference from 1967 until UNM left to become a founding member of the Mountain West Conference in 1999. Hawai’i was also a New Mexico opponent in the WAC, from 1979-1998.
