Post by elp525 on Nov 4, 2011 4:35:41 GMT -5
Friday November 4, 2011
by Jack Bogaczyk
Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- There's a theory I have involving the Big 12 and conference realignment, and while the theory not quite conspiratorial, I think there's a good chance there is bigger than a nugget of truth in it.
For a while, as regards the Big 12, it was West Virginia waiting for Missouri to make a potential move before the Mountaineers could make a potential move.
Now, methinks, the situation is reversed. Mizzou is waiting on WVU.
Missouri supposedly wants to go to the Southeastern Conference. The holdup, presumably, is that the Tigers are trying to negotiate down their exit-dollar amount with the Big 12 ... but nobody will really say that. Not the league, not Mizzou.
Nobody, not WVU, Mizzou, the Big 12, or even the SEC, will say anything of any substance about any of this. And considering how ham-handed the Big 12 has handled a lot of its realignment poker hands, anything is possible.
Honestly, I think it's more something like this:
The Big 12 has to keep Mizzou in the fold until WVU is sure it can bolt the Big East in time for the 2012-13 year. Otherwise, the Big 12's pending, $1.17 billion (13 years) second-tier telecast contract with Fox doesn't fly - because the league wouldn't have 10 teams.
So, Mizzou stays in the Big 12 as the 10th team, until the Big 12 is sure West Virginia is able to extricate itself from the Big East and replace the Tigers as the 10th, Fox-fulfilling school. The Big 12 then says thanks and goodbye to Mizzou by reducing the exit amount, and the SEC does a formal invite.
Which leads me to ... The SEC has said nothing - nothing - about inviting Missouri as the 14th member ... perhaps because the Tigers might be playing in the Big 12 next season if WVU can't move.
There is no way the Big 12 is going to let that lucrative (conference-saving, really) TV deal go astray. So, Mizzou waits while West Virginia and the Big East do their lawsuit-started posturing and negotiations.
At least that's how this longtime press box occupant views it.
* * *
I WAS asked the other day if WVU's lawsuit against the Big East adds to the Mountain State's famed reputation as "a judicial hellhole."
Sure it does. WVU's filing is over the top, and in my opinion has only made a bad situation with the Big East even worse.
West Virginia was shopping itself to other leagues before it landed the Big 12 bid ... sort of like coaches John Beilein and Rich Rodriguez shopped themselves not so long ago, riling the old gold and blue.
Let's see ... WVU sued the Big East. WVU sued Rodriguez. WVU and Beilein stopped just short of suing one another. WVU, as part of the Big East and with Connecticut, Rutgers and Pitt, sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College in June 2003.
How'd that one turn out?
Well, each of the four Big East schools received $1 million in an April 2005 settlement, and WVU got a home-and-home football series with Florida State (2012 and '13), among nine games ACC schools agreed to play against the Big East.
However, WVU's legal fees in the mess were $2,299,658.20. Now, if WVU decides to cancel the FSU series (because it needs to accommodate nine Big 12 games annually), it will cost in the $800,000 range to liquidate the contract. The Big East could contend that West Virginia, in exiting, has only made the situation worse.
If all of this ever gets to court or even if the Big East files a countersuit, don't be surprised to learn WVU also had a significant hand in deciding to turn down the ESPN offer of a $1.4 billion, nine-year TV contract extension because some of the league members thought it could do better with more suitors.
Now, WVU (along with Pitt and Syracuse) has contributed to a situation whereby what's left of the Big East may not close to that dollar neighborhood ... and the major network that telecasts college sports is more than a trifle steamed at the league.
Actionable? Sure, but bottom line, WVU is going to leave the Big East when it wants, and pay big to do so via negotiation.
All of that said, I do agree with the basic premise of the suit.
At its roots, the Big East cares more about basketball than football. That's nothing new. WVU knew that when it joined the conference for football, as an all-sports member, and now.
It's been that way for the two decades the conference has played football. The Big East's foundation in 1979 was basketball, and - the Boise States and UCFs better understand this - that's not going to change.
The Big East, although it added TCU before the Horned Frogs backed away, has been dreadfully slow to react to football expansion. There was the fumbling around when Villanova was being considered as a football member - a deal that WVU helped nix.
Then, after that, the conference went months talking about expansion but doing nothing of consequence until Pitt and Syracuse announced for the ACC.
WVU not only looks bad in its filing of the lawsuit. It's the 14-page document itself that contributes to the "hellhole" reputation. It has more than a few errors of fact contained.
In the "factual allegations" on the history of the Big East, Pitt is left out as one of the Big East football members in 2000. Gee, that's only a school WVU has played more than 100 times. How do you forget Pitt?
The lawsuit says several basketball schools "did not compete in Division I football," including Villanova and Connecticut. Sorry, wrong. UConn and 'Nova played what was then known as Division I-AA football, but they were still in Division I, which has two levels.
And in the section on the charge of "breach of fiduciary duties" by Big East Commissioner John Marinatto, the lawsuit says the "departure of members Pittsburgh, UConn and TCU created an imbalance ... "
UConn didn't leave. Syracuse did.
It's obvious this lawsuit was hastily written and filed ... and haste makes waste. It's too bad it had to be filed, period.
But if it were going to be filed, could perhaps someone with some knowledge of the Big East and major college football maybe have fact-checked it before adding to the reams of briefs in the hellhole?
by Jack Bogaczyk
Charleston Daily Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- There's a theory I have involving the Big 12 and conference realignment, and while the theory not quite conspiratorial, I think there's a good chance there is bigger than a nugget of truth in it.
For a while, as regards the Big 12, it was West Virginia waiting for Missouri to make a potential move before the Mountaineers could make a potential move.
Now, methinks, the situation is reversed. Mizzou is waiting on WVU.
Missouri supposedly wants to go to the Southeastern Conference. The holdup, presumably, is that the Tigers are trying to negotiate down their exit-dollar amount with the Big 12 ... but nobody will really say that. Not the league, not Mizzou.
Nobody, not WVU, Mizzou, the Big 12, or even the SEC, will say anything of any substance about any of this. And considering how ham-handed the Big 12 has handled a lot of its realignment poker hands, anything is possible.
Honestly, I think it's more something like this:
The Big 12 has to keep Mizzou in the fold until WVU is sure it can bolt the Big East in time for the 2012-13 year. Otherwise, the Big 12's pending, $1.17 billion (13 years) second-tier telecast contract with Fox doesn't fly - because the league wouldn't have 10 teams.
So, Mizzou stays in the Big 12 as the 10th team, until the Big 12 is sure West Virginia is able to extricate itself from the Big East and replace the Tigers as the 10th, Fox-fulfilling school. The Big 12 then says thanks and goodbye to Mizzou by reducing the exit amount, and the SEC does a formal invite.
Which leads me to ... The SEC has said nothing - nothing - about inviting Missouri as the 14th member ... perhaps because the Tigers might be playing in the Big 12 next season if WVU can't move.
There is no way the Big 12 is going to let that lucrative (conference-saving, really) TV deal go astray. So, Mizzou waits while West Virginia and the Big East do their lawsuit-started posturing and negotiations.
At least that's how this longtime press box occupant views it.
* * *
I WAS asked the other day if WVU's lawsuit against the Big East adds to the Mountain State's famed reputation as "a judicial hellhole."
Sure it does. WVU's filing is over the top, and in my opinion has only made a bad situation with the Big East even worse.
West Virginia was shopping itself to other leagues before it landed the Big 12 bid ... sort of like coaches John Beilein and Rich Rodriguez shopped themselves not so long ago, riling the old gold and blue.
Let's see ... WVU sued the Big East. WVU sued Rodriguez. WVU and Beilein stopped just short of suing one another. WVU, as part of the Big East and with Connecticut, Rutgers and Pitt, sued the ACC, Miami and Boston College in June 2003.
How'd that one turn out?
Well, each of the four Big East schools received $1 million in an April 2005 settlement, and WVU got a home-and-home football series with Florida State (2012 and '13), among nine games ACC schools agreed to play against the Big East.
However, WVU's legal fees in the mess were $2,299,658.20. Now, if WVU decides to cancel the FSU series (because it needs to accommodate nine Big 12 games annually), it will cost in the $800,000 range to liquidate the contract. The Big East could contend that West Virginia, in exiting, has only made the situation worse.
If all of this ever gets to court or even if the Big East files a countersuit, don't be surprised to learn WVU also had a significant hand in deciding to turn down the ESPN offer of a $1.4 billion, nine-year TV contract extension because some of the league members thought it could do better with more suitors.
Now, WVU (along with Pitt and Syracuse) has contributed to a situation whereby what's left of the Big East may not close to that dollar neighborhood ... and the major network that telecasts college sports is more than a trifle steamed at the league.
Actionable? Sure, but bottom line, WVU is going to leave the Big East when it wants, and pay big to do so via negotiation.
All of that said, I do agree with the basic premise of the suit.
At its roots, the Big East cares more about basketball than football. That's nothing new. WVU knew that when it joined the conference for football, as an all-sports member, and now.
It's been that way for the two decades the conference has played football. The Big East's foundation in 1979 was basketball, and - the Boise States and UCFs better understand this - that's not going to change.
The Big East, although it added TCU before the Horned Frogs backed away, has been dreadfully slow to react to football expansion. There was the fumbling around when Villanova was being considered as a football member - a deal that WVU helped nix.
Then, after that, the conference went months talking about expansion but doing nothing of consequence until Pitt and Syracuse announced for the ACC.
WVU not only looks bad in its filing of the lawsuit. It's the 14-page document itself that contributes to the "hellhole" reputation. It has more than a few errors of fact contained.
In the "factual allegations" on the history of the Big East, Pitt is left out as one of the Big East football members in 2000. Gee, that's only a school WVU has played more than 100 times. How do you forget Pitt?
The lawsuit says several basketball schools "did not compete in Division I football," including Villanova and Connecticut. Sorry, wrong. UConn and 'Nova played what was then known as Division I-AA football, but they were still in Division I, which has two levels.
And in the section on the charge of "breach of fiduciary duties" by Big East Commissioner John Marinatto, the lawsuit says the "departure of members Pittsburgh, UConn and TCU created an imbalance ... "
UConn didn't leave. Syracuse did.
It's obvious this lawsuit was hastily written and filed ... and haste makes waste. It's too bad it had to be filed, period.
But if it were going to be filed, could perhaps someone with some knowledge of the Big East and major college football maybe have fact-checked it before adding to the reams of briefs in the hellhole?
