A Washington State judge has reportedly ruled in favor of Oregon State University and Washington State University, putting a halt to a meeting this week that might shape the future of the Pac-12 conference.
The Whitman County judge placed a temporary restraining order on the Pac-12 Board of Governors meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday.
OSU and WSU, who will be the only remaining schools in the conference next summer, filed for the restraining order last week. They claim that under Pac-12 bylaws, any team that announces its departure from the conference is automatically off the Pac-12 board.
That means, by their argument, OSU and WSU should be the sole decision makers on the board going forward.
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Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA have announced they are moving to the Big Ten starting next summer. Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are headed to the Big 12 while Cal and Stanford will join the Atlantic Coast Conference.
KXLY in Spokane reports that OSU and WSU argued that the teams leaving the Pac-12 will have allegiance to their new conferences and cannot act fairly on behalf of the Pac-12.
The two schools also want access to business information and want to protect the Pac-12 assets as they work to rebuild the conference.
Pac-12 attorneys said the conference would continue to “hemorrhage” employees if the meeting did not happen, KXLY reported.
