Big East schools file lawsuit

Big East sues to try to prevent ACC expansion
By Eddie Pells, Associated Press

Five Big East schools filed a lawsuit Friday to try to prevent Miami and Boston College from jumping to the Atlantic Coast Conference, accusing them of secretly taking part in an expansion plan that could ruin the Big East.

The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Hartford, Conn., says Miami and Boston College professed loyalty to their conference while concocting a "deliberate scheme to destroy the Big East and abscond with the collective value of all that has been invested and created in the Big East."

Big East schools went ahead with expensive renovations and upgrades under the assumption they would be part of a healthy conference for years to come, the lawsuit contends.

The Big East could lose millions of dollars in revenue from bowl games, the lucrative Bowl Championship Series and from TV deals, the lawsuit says. The nine-team ACC has promised football power Miami increased revenue from a more lucrative TV deal it believes it could negotiate as a 12-team conference.

The lawsuit was filed by Pittsburgh, Connecticut, West Virginia, Virginia Tech and Rutgers against the ACC, Miami and Boston College. Syracuse is part of the potential ACC expansion but was not included in the lawsuit because plaintiffs said they found no evidence the school made promises to stay in the Big East.

The ACC and Boston College did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment. Miami spokesman Mark Pray declined comment because the school had not seen the lawsuit.

The five Big East schools are suing for financial damages and want an injunction to prevent Miami and Boston College from leaving.

"Our universities have brought this lawsuit with great regret and only as a last resort. Unfortunately the actions of Miami and BC - in concert with the ACC - simply left us no choice but to act," presidents of the five schools said in a statement.

The ACC last month announced plans to try to expand. Miami is the lynchpin of the deal, and if the Hurricanes go, Boston College and Syracuse are expected to follow.

ACC representatives have visited all three campuses and a final decision on expansion is expected soon.

The lawsuit accuses Miami and Boston College of making repeated assurances of their loyalty to the conference. It quotes Miami president Donna Shalala on March 6, 2002, reiterating Miami's commitment "in the strongest terms possible, emphatically stating that the University of Miami is in the Big East and has no interest in leaving it for any other conference."

Based on that statement, and others like it, the lawsuit says several Big East schools financed major construction projects.

For instance, Virginia Tech invested about $37 million in the second phase of expansion of its football stadium. UConn completed a $90 million construction project on a stadium as part of plans for its football program to begin play in the Big East in 2005.

 

Hello Stall Tactics!!

 

Could get nasty.

 

The Big East schools won't come anywhere close to winning the lawsuit outright, but it won't get completetly laughed out of court.

Problem is....the ''Jilted 5'' are basing their case on verbal assurances from UM president Shalala that the Canes were content in the BE and had no intentions of moving to the ACC. As a result of these ''verbal assurances'' from Shalala, UConn began construction on $90 million Renthcler Stadium, which was to house the Huskies football team when they began play as a full BE football member in 2005-2006.

With little to no chance of a BCS berth remaining in the Big East with the departure of Miami and their bitches....errrr....Syracuse and BC, UConn essentially loses big time on their investment, since they were counting on being included and contending for the big BCS dollars.

However, nothing is in writing, so while its a tragic story in the case of UConn, a judge is not going to grant damages based on verbal assurances or agreements.

 

I think I saw somewhere that there is a what amounts to a buyout clause with several of the teams for a million bucks if they chose to leave. That alone should get the thing thrown out of court.

 

Somebody is going to cut a check to the 5 remaining schools. Whether it's the ACC or the leaving schools I don't know - but a check will be coming.

 

yeah, but a mil is a whole lot less than what they are asking for.

 

Yeah, but I'd be willing to bet that the actual check ends up being larger than the $1 million too. Somewhere in between what the suit asks for and what the bylaws state just to make the suit go away and have a clean break. I think the bylaws say something like $2 mil if they all leave before June 30 (fat chance) or $1 mil after that. Shoot. That's chump change. That won't even pay the rent on Pitt and VT's new facilities.

We (VT) are even so hypocritical that we lobbied the ACC office to get in and then sued them. Wonderful. Just a great example. We SHOULD get laughed out of court.