San Diego State needs to endure a little inconvenience instead of paying over $17.5 million
Let’s do some simple math: San Diego State would owe the Mountain West Conference a $16.5 million exit fee if it leaves by June 30. If the Aztecs don’t meet that deadline and leave after June 30, they would owe close to $34 million total, over $17 million more than what they would owe if they make the June 30 deadline.
To no one’s surprise, the Mountain West rejected San Diego State’s plea for an extension of that June 30 deadline. This was reported on Monday by ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
San Diego State obviously wants to avoid a public relations (optics) hit. SDSU would like to leave the Mountain West and announce a move to the Pac-12 within a few hours of that official divorce, if not concurrently. San Diego State doesn’t want to leave the Mountain West and then wait weeks to finally latch onto a new conference. That desire is understandable.
However: If the school is worried about a multiple-week or multiple-month delay, the alternative is that if it waits into the month of July to formally leave the Mountain West, it will owe that extra $17.5 million.
So, which is the bigger concern for SDSU: a few weeks, maybe one month, of temporary inconvenience and discomfort, or — on the other hand — paying $34 million instead of $16.5 million?
The answer seems pretty clear from this or any other vantage point.
The only way San Diego State’s interests are best served by waiting past June 30 is if it has solid information indicating that the Pac-12 media rights deal is nowhere near an agreeable price point, and the Big 12 is actually not that interested in grabbing the Aztecs.
We can debate the first item — whether the Pac-12 media deal will reach a satisfactory price point — but on the second point, it’s pretty clear the Big 12 would love to scoop up the Aztecs if the Pac-12 fumbles the bag.
San Diego State administrators should be on the phone with the Pac-12 right now, insisting that this deal get finalized. Then the divorce with the Mountain West can proceed, followed by the marriage with the Pac-12.
We discussed all this with Mark Rogers at The Voice of College Football. Our talk with Mark begins at the 47-minute mark of the video:
