Oregon State, Washington State File Legal Complaint Against Pac-12, George Kliavkoff

As the final two members of the Pac-12 to not make a conference change, Washington State and Oregon State filed a formal legal complaint against the Pac-12 and commissioner George Kliavkoff on Friday, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

The goal of the complaint is to seek an emergency temporary restraining order for the schools to defend themselves against what they deem as an "imminent and existential threat" to the future of the conference.

Washington State and Oregon State, who are still looking for ways to keep the conference alive after 10 programs decided to move elsewhere, are asking for a board meeting of all 12 members Wednesday to be canceled until there is "legal clarity" over who has the right to vote on matters concerning the league.

According to Pac-12 bylaws—as Washington State and Oregon State are the only two schools not to give a notice of withdrawal—the presidents of those two schools should comprise the league's board of directors.

The legal complaint was filed in state court in Whitman County, Washington, which is where Washington State is located and includes a request for a hearing on the temporary restraining order on Monday, which would have huge ramifications on the meeting scheduled a couple days later.

"Defendants' actions have left Plaintiffs with no choice but to bring this emergency temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo until a hearing can be had on a preliminary injunction," the filing says. "Plaintiffs are willing to schedule a prompt preliminary injunction hearing and conduct any needed discovery on an expedited basis."

One of the biggest reasons the complaint was made was concern over the Pac-12's remaining assets. The filing says that the Pac-12 ended the 2022 fiscal year with $42.7 million in total net assets, which doesn't even include the money brought in from the conference's ownership of the Pac-12 Network.

Following the 2021-22 season, the network has reported revenue of $117 million and expenses of $77 million.

The conference is also expected to rake in $50.2 million from the men's NCAA basketball tournament.

The big fear for Washington State and Oregon State is that if all the 12 current members of the league met, they may opt to dissolve or evenly distribute those assets.

"Unless Defendants are enjoined from holding this meeting, the Pac-12 and the ten departing members will wrongfully seize control of the Conference in violation of the Bylaws and take steps that will cause irreparable harm to WSU and OSU," the filing says. "Once the Conference allows the ten ineligible former Board members to participate on the Board and purport to vote on behalf of the Conference, irreparable damage to Plaintiffs will be done.

"The Conference will have breached its Bylaws; WSU's and OSU's rights as remaining members of the Pac-12 Conference will have been eviscerated; and the ten departing members may seek to amend the Bylaws to alter the governance structure of the Conference and take actions to protect their own self-interests to the detriment of WSU and OSU."

The conference's bylaws say that any notice of withdrawal from the league means a school "automatically cease(s) to be a member of the Pac-12 Board of Directors and shall cease to have the right to vote on any matter."

USC, UCLA, Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State, Utah, Oregon and Washington have all announced their departures at some point over the past year, and the ACC voted to add Stanford and Cal next year.