The Pac-12, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletics conference, has sued rival Mountain West Conference for imposing a "poaching penalty" in a scheduling agreement that allegedly curbed competition between member schools and breached federal antitrust law.

Pac-12′s counsel at Keker, Van Nest & Peters, which filed the complaint on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, claimed that the Pac-12 was forced to agree to the "unlawful" terms of its agreement with the MWC under duress. The claim alleged an invalid contract for unenforceable penalties and violations of the Section 1 of the Sherman Act, California's Cartwright Act and California's Unfair Competition Law.