Boise State University has filed a legal complaint against the Mountain West Conference regarding a new television deal that school officials believe breaches a contract between the university and conference.
The Idaho Statesman reported last week that the Boise, Idaho university filed the complaint over a new television contract the MWC signed with Fox and CBS.
According to KTVB7, the complaint revolves around the MWC ending the “sweetheart deal” that helped keep Boise State in the conference in 2012. The deal, which was signed when Boise State had an offer to join the Big East, gave the Broncos a $1.8 million annual bonus of the conference’s television revenue, and allowed them to negotiate their home football games separately.
A Jan. 17 Boise State statement discussed how important that deal was to keeping the school from leaving for the Big East. After the new deal was signed, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said that the conference wants more equity in future deals.
“Boise State’s decision to join the conference was predicated on a number of negotiated provisions, including the right to separately negotiate material terms of media rights relating to our home games,” Boise State’s statement said. “This is stated in our conference agreement and cannot be changed by any vote of the membership or conflicting agreement. We will not support any change to this provision and are in the process of weighing our options to move forward.”
A Jan. 22 joint statement from Boise State and the Mountain West confirmed there is ongoing legal action.
“Last week Boise State filed a complaint regarding media rights against the Mountain West Conference, however, that action alone does not formally begin a lawsuit,” the statement read. “The University and the Mountain West are currently in discussions in hopes of bringing this matter to a resolution without litigation.”
