ACC/MD Settlement

[06029]

$31mm plus. So go back and see who guessed right. That is not $52mm but is still a bunch of money and GOR is not coming up for a legal decision. (sorry, missed in the other posts).
http://www.theacc.com/#!/news-detail/agreement_08-08-14_lryjmo

This does nothing pro or con for Uconn today or for any other conference that wants to grab teams within the P5. GOR looks like it may hold some weight since MD had to pay almost double what it wanted to pay but since it never came to trial, it is the status quo for now.

 

[Dooley]

This is GREAT news for UCONN. The ACC's hold on its members isn't as strong as everyone thought. I wouldn't be shocked to see a few schools get lured to the B1G or SEC. They clearly don't have to wait until the GOR expires. And the $51M exit fee can be negotiated down.

Part of me wished this went to trial so we can have some dirty laundry aired. But this is very bad news for the ACC and excellent news for UCONN's hopes of getting an escape pod.

 

[B1GOSU]

I also wanted to see the dirty laundry aired public.

So the question is...................why would UConn ever want to join a conference that Maryland just spent $31 million to get out of? Only way I see that as being a good deal is if the B1G has no plans to add UConn.

 

[Dooley]

I also wanted to see the dirty laundry aired public.

So the question is....why would UConn ever want to join a conference that Maryland just spent $31 million to get out of? Only way I see that as being a good deal is if the B1G has no plans to add UConn.

It's good news because there are now 2 ways UCONN can get out of the AAC:

1. the B1G adds UCONN and can pair them with an ACC target in the near-term;
2. the ACC looks to UCONN to replace a school that left for the B1G/SEC

Remember, UCONN just needs to get out of the AAC. We'll worry about where the landscape ends up years from now. If you poll UCONN fans, 95% of us want to join the B1G. But 100% of us just want to get out of the AAC.

 

[Glastonhusky]

I also wanted to see the dirty laundry aired public.

So the question is....why would UConn ever want to join a conference that Maryland just spent $31 million to get out of? Only way I see that as being a good deal is if the B1G has no plans to add UConn.

That's just the thing, we don't know if the B1G has any plans to add UConn, no one does. Given that, we would have to jump at the first invite that comes along.

 

[dayooper]

$31mm plus. So go back and see who guessed right. That is not $52mm but is still a bunch of money and GOR is not coming up for a legal decision. (sorry, missed in the other posts).
http://www.theacc.com/#!/news-detail/agreement_08-08-14_lryjmo

This does nothing pro or con for Uconn today or for any other conference that wants to grab teams within the P5. GOR looks like it may hold some weight since MD had to pay almost double what it wanted to pay but since it never came to trial, it is the status quo for now.

How does this show The GOR holds weight? UMD was never challenging the GOR. Unless you are HFD or believe in his theory, the exit fee and GOR are not connected.

 

[dayooper]

This is GREAT news for UCONN. The ACC's hold on its members isn't as strong as everyone thought. I wouldn't be shocked to see a few schools get lured to the B1G or SEC. They clearly don't have to wait until the GOR expires. And the $51M exit fee can be negotiated down.

Part of me wished this went to trial so we can have some dirty laundry aired. But this is very bad news for the ACC and excellent news for UCONN's hopes of getting an escape pod.

Huh? How does this get a school out or around The ACC GOR?

 

[CTMike]

I also wanted to see the dirty laundry aired public.

So the question is....why would UConn ever want to join a conference that Maryland just spent $31 million to get out of? Only way I see that as being a good deal is if the B1G has no plans to add UConn.

Um, hello... We are in the AAC, that's why! First lifeboat out!

 

[TerryD]

I was four million dollars too low on my estimate. My guess was always $27 million.

Maryland's legal position was that they owed either nothing with Louisville replacing them or $20 million at most and that the ACC owed them millions in anti-trust damages.

The ACC's legal position was that Maryland owed it $52 million plus it did not owe anything to Maryland.

All of that was simply legal maneuvering by both sides. The lawyers on both sides knew the score. Maryland's anti-trust case was totally bogus from the start.

This turned out how many observers thought.

In my case evaluation, the ACC came out $4 million ahead, but I am a conservative civil defense lawyer, I think all claims are too high.

The truth is that this case is what it always was going to be, a draw.

All lawyers will tell you that a good settlement is one where neither party got what it wanted and neither party is happy.

This was a good settlement.

The ACC GOR is not implicated at all.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

A draw is a terrible outcome for us. Anyone that wants to leave the ACC may not be held to $52M, but $31M is nothing to sneeze at either. That's still a fairly large disincentive. Given that teams don't get full pay when they join a new conference, one would have to think about how long it will take to recoup that fee. This does absolutely nothing to move the CR needle.
On a personal note, we didn't get to watch this go to trial and see the ACC and ESPiN leaders squirm around with the thoughts of divulging behind the scenes info.
The next key moment to wait for is whether you can have a CCG in an uneven numbered conference. I'm hoping it's allowed.

 

[06029]

A draw is a terrible outcome for us. Anyone that wants to leave the ACC may not be held to $52M, but $31M is nothing to sneeze at either. That's still a fairly large disincentive. Given that teams don't get full pay when they join a new conference, one would have to think about how long it will take to recoup that fee. This does absolutely nothing to move the CR needle.
On a personal note, we didn't get to watch this go to trial and see the ACC and ESPiN leaders squirm around with the thoughts of divulging behind the scenes info.
The next key moment to wait for is whether you can have a CCG in an uneven numbered conference. I'm hoping it's allowed.

My guess is the B1G is not squeeky clean in all of this either.

As for an odd number CCG, if the P5 want it, they can have it. That was what yesterday's vote basically says. And if the P5 don't want it, no one gets it.

 

[TerryD]

It's good news because there are now 2 ways UCONN can get out of the AAC:

1. the B1G adds UCONN and can pair them with an ACC target in the near-term;
2. the ACC looks to UCONN to replace a school that left for the B1G/SEC

Remember, UCONN just needs to get out of the AAC. We'll worry about where the landscape ends up years from now. If you poll UCONN fans, 95% of us want to join the B1G. But 100% of us just want to get out of the AAC.

This settlement does not affect the ACC Grant of Rights in any manner at all.

To get out of the ACC (assuming anyone wants to, no evidence any other than Maryland did/does since all signed a subsequent GOR), the school leaving will have to pay around $30 million AND figure out a way to bust the GOR in court.

Good luck to that brave school...

 

[06029]

This settlement does not affect the ACC Grant of Rights in any manner at all.

To get out of the ACC (assuming anyone wants to, no evidence any other than Maryland did/does since all signed a subsequent GOR), the school leaving will have to pay around $30 million AND figure out a way to bust the GOR in court.

Good luck to that brave school...

If the revenue stream for leaving is a multiple of some magnitude of the the total cost, then someone will try it. Given the arms race and money grab that was approved by the P5 yesterday, it is inevitable.

It may not be an ACC school first. I think it is more likely a Big12 school. Bevo is surely not happy with the state of affairs as it relates to them. If they become a player in the NC race again, only to be shut out of the playoff by a second SEC team, they will make big noise and things will start shaking.

 

[Dooley]

This is a Maryland win. While it isn't as lopsided a victory as Missouri and Texas A&M over the B12, it's still significantly less than the $52M that the ACC wanted. Even the AAC/Big East got money from TCU and Boise State despite neither team playing one second of athletic competition in the conference in any sport.

The GOR thing is debatable. There are people who say that it can beaten. There are people that say it is iron-clad. Sure, it's a risk. But what this settlement says to me is that the ACC and ESPiN didn't want their dirty laundry aired in court. If another school in the ACC is armed with the same information that Maryland is armed with (I imagine they would be) and they decide to leave for a richer payday in the B1G or SEC, then this makes a settlement more likely. We've already heard rumblings that the ACC GOR could have been signed under duress by a few schools. I'm not sure how you could possibly prove that, but that's the leg you stand on in the courts while holding the ACC/ESPiN dirty laundry secrets in your back pocket as a threat to get something settled.

Another thing to consider: if autonomy leads to an eventual split, how iron-clad are GORs anyway? I mean, let's say a school wants to leave a conference with a GOR and they can't beat it. What's to stop the new conference from covering lost revenue to that school if it was worth it in the long-run? And doesn't a GOR only cover Tier 1/2 games?

Anyway, this settlement undermines the ACC a bit. Maryland will be able to make $31M rather quickly in the B1G and once they are a full share member, the move was well worth it.

 

[Dooley]

This settlement does not affect the ACC Grant of Rights in any manner at all.

To get out of the ACC (assuming anyone wants to, no evidence any other than Maryland did/does since all signed a subsequent GOR), the school leaving will have to pay around $30 million AND figure out a way to bust the GOR in court.

Good luck to that brave school...

The court blueprint:

1. We signed the GOR under duress
2. We know the same that Maryland knows and want to air it in court

Obviously, the ACC and ESPiN don't want to go to court and be forced to share their secret, internal discussions in a public forum. Thus, there is motivation to settle.

 

[B1GOSU]

On a personal note, we didn't get to watch this go to trial and see the ACC and ESPiN leaders squirm around with the thoughts of divulging behind the scenes info.
The next key moment to wait for is whether you can have a CCG in an uneven numbered conference. I'm hoping it's allowed.

No need to wait. The MAC has done it for years. 13 schools. 7 in the East and 6 in the West. UMASS is the 13th member. Prior to that, it was Temple. Prior to that, it was UCF.

 

[housekeys]

...Maryland will be able to make $31M rather quickly in the B1G and once they are a full share member, the move was well worth it.

Yeah. It looks like to skip out of your conference, you basically forego 1 year's worth of conference pay. Like losing out on your security deposit while renting. Right?

 

[Sea Goat]

That's just the thing, we don't know if the B1G has any plans to add UConn, no one does. Given that, we would have to jump at the first invite that comes along.

Agreed! While we wouldn't want to appear like a streetwalker at midnight in a blizzard, we'll jump at the first P-5 offer.

 

[ramses 2.0]

This settlement does not affect the ACC Grant of Rights in any manner at all.

To get out of the ACC (assuming anyone wants to, no evidence any other than Maryland did/does since all signed a subsequent GOR), the school leaving will have to pay around $30 million AND figure out a way to bust the GOR in court.

Good luck to that brave school...

Actually the exit fee is 3 times the expected conference payout for a given year. So with the money from the CFP starting to roll in along with ESPN's bump, NCAA credits & new Bowl game revenue should push that amount in the 30 million range. So for arguments sake let's say you owe 60% of 90 million & whatever it costs to get out of the GOR. You could be looking at a 100 million to leave

 

[CL82]

I do think that some of the behind the scenes players were part of the motivation. I suspect ESPN didn't want discovery and the B1G didn't want any complications in its contract negotiations. I would have loved to seen this go to trial. I think the logic of the eventual decision (prohibition against punitive exit fees) would have impacted the validity of GORs and helped to destabilize the current CR truce.

 

[Dooley]

Yeah. It looks like to skip out of your conference, you basically forego 1 year's worth of conference pay. Like losing out on your security deposit while renting. Right?

Essentially. Then you make up for it in the long run because $40M /yr > $20M/yr.

 

[kyleslamb]

This settlement does not affect the ACC Grant of Rights in any manner at all.

To get out of the ACC (assuming anyone wants to, no evidence any other than Maryland did/does since all signed a subsequent GOR), the school leaving will have to pay around $30 million AND figure out a way to bust the GOR in court.

Good luck to that brave school...

No one would need to bust the GOR in court if the rights continue to be compensated as they should. That's really the crux of the argument, because the GOR will not stop most schools from leaving if they are justly compensated.

 

[Stray_Dog]

This settlement does not affect the ACC Grant of Rights in any manner at all.

To get out of the ACC (assuming anyone wants to, no evidence any other than Maryland did/does since all signed a subsequent GOR), the school leaving will have to pay around $30 million AND figure out a way to bust the GOR in court.

Good luck to that brave school...

...and the last thing you need is the Irish wishing you Luck!

 

[Fishy]

$31M is the best money Maryland will ever spend.

And they saved $21M.

Today is completely meaningless for UConn, but in the history of these legal dust ups over a team leaving, a conference is yet to hold a school to the letter of its rules.

Not sure why the ACC blinked.

 

[itgoeslike]

Actually the exit fee is 3 times the expected conference payout for a given year. So with the money from the CFP starting to roll in along with ESPN's bump, NCAA credits & new Bowl game revenue should push that amount in the 30 million range. So for arguments sake let's say you owe 60% of 90 million & whatever it costs to get out of the GOR. You could be looking at a 100 million to leave

Actually it's a multiple of the conference operations budget. Although, at this point, the bar is set around $31M, until it's not.