btstimpy, I am a UMD grad and fan, so it will be no surprise my take is a bit different from yours.
I agree with your first statement that members are bound to bylaws that pass even if they oppose. That's not in dispute. The problem here is that it appears that the increased exit fee proposal was not given a proper amount of time to be deliberated amongst the conference presidents, and to have it effective immediately. Even if the bylaws allow such important proposals to be rammed through, and if the immediate effective date was also allowed by the bylaws, they have to be legal. For example, if the presidents passed a bylaw that ACC member fans are allowed to throw batteries at their opponents athletes, this would not be allowed. In my opinion, an exit fee of $52,000,000 is way too excessive, and perhaps illegal, besides being unethical. So, the NC court will have to decide if the bylaws were, in fact, followed, and if they were, if such an exit fee is legal. And from what I heard, this may have been done to appease Notre Dame to keep schools from leaving. If true, this makes the exit fee smell even more.
What is galling about this is how Swofford insists Maryland follow the bylaws that were questionably enacted, while not insisting that the last four members they poached from the Big East honor the Big East bylaws of the 27-month notice. I suppose that this is irrelevant to the case at hand, but does expose Swofford's gross hypocrisy. Somehow, he found nothing wrong with poaching seven teams from another conference, but has a hissy fit when one school leaves his conference.
It is unfortunate that the ACC decided to drag this out. In the interest of fairness and sportsmanship, Dr. Loh, Dr. Sullivan, and the other ACC presidents should have met in executive session, without Swofford, and hammered out an agreement, such as allowing Maryland to leave with the $20,000,000 exit fee that they agreed to in the past, shake hands, wish each other luck, and move on.
Unfortunately, Maryland has also made mistakes throughout this process. While I agree with Dr. Loh that an exit fee is appropriate, I thought that $20,000,000 was too high. If the bylaws allow for a president to reconsider a bylaw (even though such actions would most likely end up in the circular file before being considered), and Dr. Loh failed to do so, that would be a mistake. I also believe that Maryland voting for Notre Dame half-a--ed membership was a gross mistake. If this happened before Maryland was seriously considering leaving, they should have voted against. Otherwise, they should have abstained. Maryland may not have followed their own procedures for switching conferences, and they may have (if they haven't already) to answer for that. But this mistake has nothing to do with the ACC. I also find throwing batteries at opposing athletes/fans and other unsportsmanlike or criminal activities disgusting, and more effort should be employed to deter this.
I was pro-ACC, but gradually became disenchanted. I think Notre Dame's partial admission sealed it. I think Maryland's move to BIG is a positive move. I understand that sometimes the devil you know may end up being not as bad. We'll see.
I like UConn9604's bet. It appears that depending on which of our argument is correct, the final judgment will be either less than $25,000,000 or greater than $50,000,000. Another possibility is that neither the ACC or Maryland really wants this to go to court, and settle for something in between.