Boise State Counters Lawsuit Threat from Former Big East

[Harry]

Representatives of what will soon be the American Athletic Conference have informed Boise State that the conference will sue the university for $5 million – allegedly for a purported cancellation penalty related to Boise State’s proposed entry to the Big East Conference.

In response, Boise State was left with no alternative but to file a lawsuit in Boise, asking the court to declare that no such penalty is due.

Published reports indicate that the entity that had been known as the Big East Conference will become the American Athletic Conference this summer, but it is a vastly different organization than the one Boise State agreed to join. In fact, the actual Big East will no longer sponsor college football.

The Memorandum of Understanding signed Dec. 6, 2011, between Boise State and the Big East included a number of conditions that needed to be met before Boise State would become a member of the conference, which was set to happen on July 1, 2013.

Well before that start date approached, the conference underwent severe changes, and many of those conditions were left unaddressed, including:

• The Big East lost more than 78 percent of its membership between Dec. 6, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2012.
• The Big East failed to add football schools west of the Mississippi River.
• The Big East lost its “automatic qualifier” status, while the other five BCS conferences continued their guaranteed access to the BCS bowl games.

“Boise State entered into that agreement in good faith and with a great degree of optimism, but the conference we agreed to join simply no longer exists,” said Boise State President Bob Kustra.

“Boise State worked diligently to try to salvage the Big East Conference and help lead it into the future, but in the end the changes and losses proved too great to overcome,” added Boise State Athletic Director Mark Coyle.

http://news.boisestate.edu/blog/boise-state-counters-lawsuit-threat-from-former-big-east/

[JesseMartin]

Didn't Boise State back out before the overall dissolution of the conference, renaming, etc? I know they were a key in maintaining the Big East, so their reversal may have been a factor in what happened, but the fact is that if they backed out of the contract before everything else fell to crap, they're liable, aren't they? I mean, unless there was a deadline not otherwise mentioned whereby they could remove themselves. I was kind of wondering about this when they "changed their minds". It's all a matter of timelines. If they signed, then changed course, and THEN the Catholic 7 left and the Big East was over, they could be considered one of the causes of the conference's collapse. As much as I love BSU's rise out of the mid-majors (and their ass-kicking of OU), hey, if you break a contract, you're liable.

[10Eagle10]

Boise announced they were joining the Big East in December 2011. Shortly after that, ND announced they would be joining the ACC for Olympic sports. In July 2012, it was announced that the BE would officially lose thier AQ bid. In Nov. 2012, Rutgers announced they were leaving to join the Big Ten and Louisville announced their ACC move. Shortly after these two moves, Tulane and, ultimately, ECU were added. The "Catholic 7" decision to leave was leaked the last week of Nov/first week of Dec. Navy released a statement saying they would "take a hard look before deciding." At this point Boise decides the future "AAC" is no better than the MWC and announces their decision to remain in the Mountain West on New Year's Eve 2012.

I think Boise has a pretty solid case that what they signed up for wasn't intact anymore since Rutgers/Louisville left, Tulane/ECU were added (not west of the Mississippi - I think Tulane is barely east of it, though), and Navy was expressing doubts. This move makes the AAC look desperate, don't you think?

[emmitt01]

" This move makes the AAC look desperate, don't you think?"

Look?

[VideoEagle]

" This move makes the AAC look desperate, don't you think?"

Look?

Desperate?

Try panicked!

[JesseMartin]

Yeah, as long as the Boise decision came after the dissolution they should be fine. The AAC is basically to CUSA what CUSA is to the Sunbelt. I think the MAC looks more threatening as a conference.