Sources — San Diego tells Mountain West he plans to move out

Sources told ESPN that San Diego State gave the Mountain West written notice this week that the school “intends to resign from the Mountain West Conference.”

In the letter, she asked Mountain West for a “one-month extension due to unforeseen delays related to other collegiate athletic conferences beyond our control.” As of now, there does not appear to be an invitation to San Diego State from the Power Five conference.

The letter of withdrawal, which came from San Diego State President Adela de la Torre on June 13, was fraught with complications and sparked a brief contrast between the league and SDSU. This included later informing the San Diego State League that the June 13 letter “was not the official notice of resignation,” according to sources.

San Diego State would need to give one year’s notice to withdraw next June. If she waited until June 30, the exit fee she owed would jump from about $16.5 million to nearly $34 million.

San Diego State has long been associated with the Pac-12, which is in the midst of a drawn-out process of landing a television contract. There was no official invitation for SDSU to join the league, and the schedule for that has been tied to either the Pac-12 television deal or the departure of a Pac-12 member. According to a source, “San Diego State does not have a Pac-12 bid.”

San Diego State is trying to explore all options if it gets to June 30 and the Pac-12 doesn’t have a TV deal, according to a source.

The school has also been part of a Big 12 exploration of a realignment and there have been talks, per the source. But sources say that neither side has prioritized each other up to this point.

“SDSU is exploring all options and asking all questions,” the source said. “The June 13th letter was not intended to get out of San Diego State.”

Besides the one-month extension requested in the first letter SDSU wrote to Mountain West, it also asked the league to be open to discussing an exit fee. SDSU mentioned the income the Aztecs generated for the Mountain West through the NCAA basketball tournament—estimated in March at at least $10 million in NCAA units—none of which it would see if it left the league.

San Diego State has also asked to consider a four-year installment plan to pay the exit fee. As of now, it will have to pay that money by June 2024, which will include withholding the league from paying the Mountain West distribution of the money to the school.

Mountain West responded to San Diego State and notified the school in a June 14 letter that the conference had accepted the letter of withdrawal and that the consequences of the withdrawal had begun. Among them is that de la Torre’s seat on the MWC’s board of directors will be withdrawn and that the league’s policies on financial liabilities associated with the withdrawal will be withheld.

That prompted another exchange from San Diego State to clarify that the June 13 letter was not a formal resignation, but merely a request for a month’s extension. He also demanded that no payments should be withheld, which was the league’s practice of applying exit fees. (Mountain West Schools is expecting a check of nearly $6 million in the coming weeks.)

“They’re trying to figure out what we’re willing to do,” said a Mountain West source familiar with the exchange. “They want to see if the Mountain West Conference is going to handle this well. Well, it’s not going to happen. Everyone wants to find the best financial path for themselves, and it’s hard.”

The Mountain West Conference held a call with its athletic directors Thursday afternoon detailing the games between the league and San Diego State. The news did not come as a surprise, as SDSU Athletic Director JD Wicker has spoken publicly about switching leagues.

This included Wicker telling ESPN in March that SDSU would be “ready to get into the power conference” and telling CBS in January that the Pac-12 would want to give SDSU a full share of its media revenue to keep it from going to the Big 12 and get that backyard recruiting league for the Pac-12.