The Mountain West Board of Directors has quietly voted to rescind a decision that would end Boise State’s additional slice of revenue from the conference’s TV contract, several sources told the Union-Tribune.

In exchange, Boise State will drop a legal complaint filed last month against the conference and agree to terms of the new TV contract that begins this summer.

Essentially, the two sides are back to square one.

Boise State claims its special “carve-out” for broadcast rights to home football games, granted in 2012 as incentive to return to the Mountain West after nearly leaving for the Big East, has no expiration date and is warranted as the conference’s marquee football program. The Mountain West’s other 11 football members want TV money to be distributed evenly no matter a program’s record or pedigree, as it is in most other conferences.


The presidents and chancellors voted on two items at meetings last December: to accept a new, six-year TV contract with CBS and Fox worth a reported $270 million; and to end Boise State’s carve-out of $1.8 million per year once the new deal expires in 2026.

In a media teleconference announcing the new contract on Jan. 10, Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said this “arguably could be” the final time Boise State received additional football revenue.

That didn’t sit well with Boise State, which a week later issued a statement saying it “will not support any change to this provision” and would weigh “our options to move forward.” Earlier that day, it filed a 17-page civil complaint in an Idaho court claiming the $1.8 million annual bonus from separately negotiating TV rights to its home games could not be contractually amended.

The Mountain West and Boise State subsequently issued a joint statement saying the two sides “are currently in discussions in hopes of bringing this matter to a resolution without litigation.” The recent vote to rescind the termination of the carve-out arrangement, then, allows them to talk without a lawsuit hanging over their heads or the new TV contract in limbo.


The Mountain West declined comment Thursday, referring to its statement from last month. Representatives from SDSU and Boise State were unavailable.

What doesn’t change, however, is the basic dispute. Boise State will continue to receive $1.8 million per year in addition to what everyone else in the conference gets through 2025-26. And the rest of the conference will continue to fight for equitable distribution after that.

San Diego State has been among the strongest voices opposing a Boise State carve-out, and President Adela de la Torre is believed to have cast a dissenting vote against reversing the December decision that would have ended it.