OSU, WSU ask court to strip all departing Pac-12 schools of board seats - ESPN

In the latest filing in Oregon State and Washington State's lawsuit against the Pac-12 and commissioner George Kliavkoff, the two schools introduced several exhibits obtained during discovery that establish the conference removed UCLA, USC and Colorado from its board after the schools announced they were leaving for the Big Ten and Big 12.

The schools argued that application of the bylaws should also apply to the conference's seven other departing schools.

«Today Oregon State and Washington State asked the court to confirm the departing schools lost their Board seats following their notices of withdrawal from the conference,» OSU and WSU said in a joint statement on Wednesday. «The evidence we have uncovered thus far in discovery overwhelmingly shows this is consistent with the position that the conference and the departing members themselves had taken up until just weeks before Oregon State and Washington State were forced to file our litigation.»

On Sept. 9, WSU and OSU filed a complaint for breach of bylaws in Whitman County (Wash.) Superior Court and sought an emergency temporary restraining order to protect what the schools saw as an «imminent and existential threat» to the future of the conference. The TRO request was granted Sept. 27, which prevented any board meetings to be called.

OSU and WSU had concerns that if a board meeting were held — and included the 10 departing schools — those schools could force a vote to take action detrimental to the future of the conference. A hearing for a preliminary injunction is set for Nov. 14, at which point the court will likely determine who has voting rights on the Pac-12 board.

The two remaining schools have argued from the beginning that as soon as the departing schools