The Pac-12 expansion that started in earnest last year, after the conference was decimated by other Power Four conferences, borrowed heavily from the Mountain West Conference. The Pac-12 poached five members from the Mountain West to bolster its ranks to keep from going defunct. The MWC sent a $55 million termination bill to the Pac-12 after five schools, including Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State, departed for the rejuvenated conference. The Pac-12 subsequently sued the MWC for the scheduling alliance, arguing that Oregon State and Washington State had no option in the agreement between the conferences. The Mountain West then filed a motion to dismiss the suit that would have been a hiccup to the Pac-12 expansion and the two conferences went into mediation to find a compromise on the hefty termination fee. After mediation failed in July, the Mountain West filed a motion to dismiss the original suit by the Pac-12 and on Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Senior Judge Claudia Wilken dismissed the conference's motion. “Although the Pac-12 agreed to the terms of the Scheduling Agreement, it has alleged that it was ‘desperate’ and ‘had little leverage’ at the time it entered into an agreement. "To hold that a contract is exempt from antitrust scrutiny simply because one party reluctantly accepted its terms’ would be to misread section 1 of the Sherman Act, which reaches ‘every contract’ that unreasonably restrains trade," Wilken wrote.Pac-12 expansion receives a boost after rulingThe ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California gave the Pac-12 expansion a boost and the conference issued a statement celebrating the decision against the hefty termination fee issued by the Mountain West Conference. "The Pac-12 Conference is pleased that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied the Mountain West Conference's motion to dismiss," the Pac-12 said in a statement. "We will move forward with our case. The ruling allows our antitrust and related claims to proceed. We remain confident in our position and focused on advancing academic excellence, athletic achievement, and the tradition that has defined the Pac-12 for more than a century."The five schools that departed the Mountain West Conference to bolster the Pac-12 expansion will join the conference next year and after the addition of the Texas State Bobcats, they will reach the eight-team minimum required to be eligible for the college football playoffs.