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All I have to say is that the University of Miami's president is the Clinton Adminstration's Donna Shalala....need I say more? |
Posted on 06/08/2003 2:47:54 PM PDT by tvn
Governor John G. Rowland, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and University of Connecticut President Philip E. Austin today announced that UConn, along with several other members of the Big East Conference, have sued the University of Miami, Boston College, and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) over the imminent defection of several schools from the Big East to the ACC.
The lawsuit, filed today in Hartford Superior Court, accuses the defendants of Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Unjust Enrichment, violation of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, and other violations of law. The University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University, Virginia Tech, and West Virginia University joined UConn as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
"Connecticut has a leadership role in the Big East, and we have been fully engaged with our fellow schools to develop an appropriate avenue to keep the Conference together," said Governor John G. Rowland. "Today's action is not just about lost revenue, but rather the importance of maintaining viable and successful intercollegiate competition and honoring long-standing commitments."
"This lawsuit reveals a backroom conspiracy, born in secret, founded on greed, and carried out through calculated deceit. The story is a sad chapter in the history of college sports - a shameful example for students and athletes as well as academic institutions across the country," said Attorney General Blumenthal. "Our legal action seeks to stop ongoing fraud and other illegal misconduct and recover millions of dollars that may be lost as a result of repeated false and misleading statements - reassurances that these schools were committed to the Big East, while they were secretly negotiating to defect and break their agreements. Their assurances and promises were explicit and unequivocal, made with clear knowledge that we would rely on them. The ACC must be held accountable as well for secretly approaching the defecting schools and inducing them to break their contracts."
"We take this action with regret. Our primary objective has always been to maintain the integrity of the Big East Conference and, through our participation in that Conference, to build on the strength of our intercollegiate athletics program," UConn President Philip Austin said. "We continue to hope that all the schools now in the Conference will honor their commitments and let us concentrate our efforts on the task of educating our students and serving our state." According to the lawsuit, officials from the defending schools repeatedly promised and assured their Big East partners that they had no intention of leaving the Conference and were not engaged in conversations with the ACC over joining that conference. Based on these repeated, unequivocal, and explicit assurances and promises, UConn and several other Big East schools poured hundreds of millions of dollars into improving their athletic facilities, entering into long-term leases with stadia, foregoing other potential revenue streams, and making other investments in the future of their athletic programs.
The departure of Miami, Syracuse, and BC to the ACC will have serious ramifications for the remaining members of the Big East, according to state officials. Without the three schools, the Big East will most likely cease being one of the six conferences that comprise the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). The Big East would lose its automatic bid to one of the four BCS bowl games, leaving Big East teams to vie for one of the remaining two at-large bids against approximately 100 other Division 1-A football teams. However, since the inception of the BCS, not one at-large bid has gone to a school outside the BCS conferences or Notre Dame.
During the most recent bowl season, the BCS paid between $13.5 million and $16.5 million to BCS bowl participants. In contrast, payouts to non-BCS bowls rarely exceed $1 million to the participants. In addition to potential lost BCS revenues, the remaining Big East members could face the loss of millions of dollars in broadcasting fees, season ticket sales, away-game revenues, and game day revenues. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages - expected to be in the millions of dollars - and penalties. It also seeks an injunction to lessen the effects of the defendants' conduct.
Actually, it is Connecticut and the other plaintiff schools that are engaging in a conspiracy, born out of fear of losing millions of dollars in admission and TV revenues that stems from signing the Big East Conference Agreement which carries specific termination rights with penalties.
Indeed, the law suit, as filed and trumpeted by Attorney General Blumenthal, constitutes an abuse of process, based on fraudulent misrepresentation for which Connecticut’s highest law officer should be held accountable.
In actuality, Connecticut's senior lawyer is engaging in fraud to cover up the state’s own incompetence. The law suit says that the State of Connecticut has invested upwards of $100 MM in new athletic facilities based on the assumption that Miami, BC and Syracuse would stay in the Big East Conference. The state alleges that Miami's current and past presidents made statements to this effect.
What the Attorney General conveniently disregards is the fact that there is a contract which all the Big East schools signed that includes a $1MM penalty clause, should any school leave the conference during the term of the contract. It is this contract that defines the rights and obligations of all of the Big East schools - not some off hand comment made by a current or past college president.
If Connecticut wanted to rely on the continued participation of Connecticut, BC and Syracuse in the Big East, its legal officers should clearly have made certain that the schools all signed a contract containing a substantial penalty provision - say $50 or $75MM - to make it extremely difficult for them to leave the contract before its termination date.
However, neither Connecticut nor any of the other plaintiff schools got such a substantial penalty provision included in the contract (and it’s highly unlikely that Miami, BC or Syracuse would have agreed to such a clause). In view of this fact, all of the Big East schools- including UConn- must be presumed to have signed the contract with the express understanding that any one or more of them could terminate their involvement in the conference on paying a $1 million early termination fee.
For Connecticut to allege that it relied on statements by certain current and former Miami officials is totally irrelevant to the contract issues. Further, for Connecticut and the others to use a law suit to attempt to coerce Miami, BC and Syracuse to stay in the Big East is itself an abuse of legal process. In addition, for the Connecticut Attorney General to allege that Miami officials are guilty of conspiracy, fraud and deception represents a malicious use of court process, designed to libel and disparage an outstanding institution and its present and past administrations.
Clearly, for Connecticut to have spent some $100MM on new sports facilities for Big East football, where it was a knowing party to a contract that allows any school to terminate its participation on paying a $1MM penalty fee, must be seen to constitute gross incompetence.
Connecticut simply has no way under its contract to keep Miami, BC and Syracuse in the Big East. That being the case, in essence, what we have here is an illegal attempt by Connecticut and the other schools to use a law suit to intimidate Miami and the others into foregoing their quite legal plan to exercise their contract rights to leave the Big East and join the ACC. The Connecticut Attorney General should be held accountable for his illegal and unethical conduct and abuse of state power.
In joining the Big East Conference, Miami, BC and Syracuse secured certain contract rights, rights which are in fact protected under the US Constitution. They should be free to exercise these rights as they so choose. And a state attorney general should not be allowed or permitted to pervert the legal process in a misguided effort to cover the state's own incompetence and to improperly attack Miami, Boston College and Syracuse and their administrations in the process.
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All I have to say is that the University of Miami's president is the Clinton Adminstration's Donna Shalala....need I say more? |
Gee, I didn't know The Onion wrote about college sports. Who's this bozo trying to kid, here?
How would that court come to have jurisdiction?
ML/NJ
Also, in order for the ACC's numbers to work, the Big East football conference has to be destroyed. This destroys competition for the television dollars in the east and also creates an additional BCS slot, because the reconstituted Big East most likely will not receive an automatic BCS bid. If these conferences are going to act like businesses, its about time we start taxing them as such, I think everyone can agree to that.
The five remaining schools face the loss of millions of dollars. A team like Virginia Tech, who has been a national power in the last five years, will no longer have any chance at a National Championship, where as a team like Baylor or Duke or Kansas State, will have a much better shot, not because of merit but by affiliation. Faced with such a loss, of course these schools are going to do whatever they can to protect their interests.
If there were such a thing as "justice" (unfortunately, there isn't), Blumenthal would already be rotting in prison for the fraud that he perpetrated upon the consumers in Connecticut by his actions against Microsoft. Funny, but I doubt that he can produce a single, named individual who has been harmed by Microsoft's "monopoly", yet anybody with a brain could point to millions of people who have lost billions of dollars due to the economic collapse that was triggered by the temporary victory that Blumenthal and the other phony anti-trusters won against Microsoft, which served as the triggering event that led to the stock market crash.
Well, if the court of public opinion means anything, the Big East will revert to its origins as a basketball conference (minus Syracuse) and leave the Big Boys to try to complete in more than one sport. (Okay! I know Duke doesn't really compete in football, but maybe they could beat the Whining Huskies?)
With Syracuse, three of the four teams in this year's Lacrosse Final Four were ACC.
Even though it reduces UVa's chances for an ACC title in football and/or basketball, I'm all for the ACC expansion. (And next year before the three new teams join is UVa's big football chance anyway. Watch out for Groh's Gang!)
ML/NJ
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