THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Fleeing-10, Pac-2 set for 'Collision in Colfax'

The future of the Pac-2 will be decided today.

Partly.

If this battle between Washington State and Oregon State against the deserting members of the Pac-12 were a football game, we’d be getting to halftime.

Except, it will be like one team having a 42-0 lead.

You CAN rally from that sort of deficit, but it’s pretty doggone hard.

Why the football analogy?

Well, whatever Judge Gary Libey decides in Whitman County court about the WSU-OSU effort to gain control of the Pac-12 board of directors is worth a six-touchdown lead.

Give or take.

The losers in this scrap — let’s call it the “Collision in Colfax” — will retain the legal avenue of appeal.

But appellants generally are fighting from way, way behind.

Courts are fairly reluctant to overturn each other’s decisions, especially in a situation like this where Libey will have been studying evidence, declarations and discovery on a truly unique case for more than a month.

This judge knows the territory.

So, the ruling in Whitman County should count for plenty.

WAZZU and Oregon State no doubt feel some level of confidence, especially since Libey quickly granted their original request for an injunction to halt departing conference members from convening a board meeting with all 12 schools.

Attorneys for the two schools argued that if the entire group of 12 universities were allowed to make board-level decisions right now, the 10 schools taking their talents elsewhere would immediately dissolve the conference. 

They would agree to split up all revenue 12 ways, including money due after this school year, which ends Aug. 1, 2024.

Counsel for the University of Washington and fellow defendants said, basically, that the 10 schools weren’t planning to disband the conference at a planned meeting — that it wasn’t on the agenda.

Libey responded: “But they could, right?”

We all know the answer to that. 

Consider that the 10 schools are all leaving solely for more money, so about any vote to disband right now?

“Ten against two. How do you suppose that would go?” Libey said.

The two schools left in the wilderness here probably have a lock-solid case for becoming “the board” and handling conference business after the other 10 leave.

I suspect both sides know that.

The real scrap isn’t about what happens in the 2024-25 fiscal year and beyond.

Hell, the schools heading to the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC (sorry, but the ACC is hilarious) don’t give a hoot what happens to the two programs left in the lifeboat.

You think they care if the Cougs and Beavers rebuild the Pac-12 with teams from the Mountain West?

They’ll be busy pushing those fat new checks into recruiting, and making fun of Wyoming and San Jose State.

Nope, what genuinely frightens the Fleeing-10 is that the judge could interpret the conference bylaws to mean that once you’ve said you’re out, you’re off the board.

Like, immediately.

There’s written proof that current nine did it to USC, UCLA and Colorado.

And the other nine have made excited public pronouncements that they’re headed out of town.

So.

If a court decides that the Fleeing-10 have forfeited their presence on the board, Washington State and Oregon State suddenly are running it all.

Now THAT frightens the deserters.

IF THE Pac-2 legally become the Pac-12 board, they could have access to income distribution from THIS year.

It would be critical, and then some, for the two survivors to gain control of roughly $400 million in revenue from the current athletic season.

There’s more in the kitty after that — March Madness units, Rose Bowl payouts, etc. — but a running start with $400 million (based on play this year by all 12 schools) would be a spectacular start as the two programs rebuild themselves.

Frankly, I suspect the Fleeing-10, with all the thrill of heading to big, rich conferences awash in TV money, didn’t see that python slip in the back door.

EEEK!!

As the only defendant school in the state, Washington is obliged to fight for the other nine.

President Ana Mari Cauce spoke for UW and its pals (some of whom they despise) in a sworn court declaration that almost sounded like it should have started with the word “Yikes!”

Cauce: “If OSU and WSU gain control of the Board, I am concerned that they would claim control over the entirety of UW’s media rights interests. 

“I am also concerned that, in general, a Board controlled by OSU and WSU would decide not to distribute net revenues earned by UW and the other nine departing institutions for competing during the 2023-24 year.”

Fascinating.

The Fleeing-10 are worried that WSU and OSU might cost them about $35 million apiece – money they helped earn.

I, um, don’t recall any of THEM offering to use the Pac-12 emergency funds, or promise any other future income, to help the two remaining schools in a clear time of crisis.

As much as I’d like to see the Greedy-10 lose this year’s cash, I suspect the court will strike a balance.

Boo.

I’m just guessing, based on my mail-order degree from Uncle Bill’s Car Wash, Cheap Rooms Hourly and Law School.*

Anyhow, I suspect WSU and OSU will be given control of the board and all conference assets after Aug. 1 (plus, all board actions before then would have to be unanimous), and I fear the deserters will get paid for their participation this year.

Personally, though, I’m rooting for the python.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”

*Don’t laugh at my mail-order degree. I have a friend who became a minister that way. He actually married a couple in a bar one night — and it turned out to be legal.