Article on possible Boise move for 2012

[coachcap]

From too late to bloody likely...http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/34850593

 

[Waquoit]

From too late to bloody likely...http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/34850593

"Bloody" likely? Downton Abbey fan? But this would be great news and would sell more than a couple of season tickets.

 

[SubbaBub]

I had to believe getting one of the new schools early was the factor behind the settlement. I think SDSU could be had for about $2.5m. I'd rather have Boise now, I just hope they will still be good.

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[businesslawyer]

The settlement with WVU, from what we know, only makes sense if Boise if in next year. If that's the case, there was no irreperable harm, you were never going to get an injunction and $20M is a great result.

If Boise isn't coming in next year, someone will have to then explain the strategy. that having been said, the Big East used reputable counsel and I'm still betting that Boise playing in league next year, and just taking over WVU's in conference schedule, is all but done.

 

[John Greene]

The settlement with WVU, from what we know, only makes sense if Boise if in next year. If that's the case, there was no irreperable harm, you were never going to get an injunction and $20M is a great result.

If Boise isn't coming in next year, someone will have to then explain the strategy. that having been said, the Big East used reputable counsel and I'm still betting that Boise playing in league next year, and just taking over WVU's in conference schedule, is all but done.

If something like this is not the case the employment of every decision maker associated with the settlement should be up for review.

 

[Waquoit]

The settlement with WVU, from what we know, only makes sense if Boise if in next year. If that's the case, there was no irreperable harm, you were never going to get an injunction and $20M is a great result.

If Boise isn't coming in next year, someone will have to then explain the strategy. that having been said, the Big East used reputable counsel and I'm still betting that Boise playing in league next year, and just taking over WVU's in conference schedule, is all but done.

FWIW, I'm putting a lot of stock in evaluation of "reputable council".

 

[SAMCRO]

There seems to be some growing concern in Boise that the WAC (future home for all other sports) may be going the way of the Do-Do bird, as a result of the CUSA/MWC merger, and they could be scrambling to find a home for the other sports. Should be interesting.

 

[John Greene]

There seems to be some growing concern in Boise that the WAC (future home for all other sports) may be going the way of the Do-Do bird, as a result of the CUSA/MWC merger, and they could be scrambling to find a home for the other sports. Should be interesting.

Anyone giving odds on BSU using current situation as a way to get into the BB side?

 

[junglehusky]

Anyone giving odds on BSU using current situation as a way to get into the BB side?

I'd say not too likely... traveling to the east coast for a game once or twice a month is one thing, traveling for more games per week in other sports is another matter. I know they have to fly far in the WAC anyway but this stuff adds up in terms of money and time.

 

[coachcap]

Anyone giving odds on BSU using current situation as a way to get into the BB side?

As I stated in the John Marinatto performance thread, the Boise, SDSU, &Navy decisions to join for football only should be revisited. The Big East needs to show a unified front. Its past history with football only federation should be an indicator. These 3 institutions should be in for all sports. As the adage states: Those who don't learn from their past mistakes are bound to repeat them. AFA has it right. Air Force has sacrificed men's basketball conference championships for the stability & scheduling ease for its athletic program as a whole.

 

[businesslawyer]

As I stated in the John Marinatto performance thread, the Boise, SDSU, &Navy decisions to join for football only should be revisited. The Big East needs to show a unified front. Its past history with football only federation should be an indicator. These 3 institutions should be in for all sports. As the adage states: Those who don't learn from their past mistakes are bound to repeat them. AFA has it right. Air Force has sacrificed men's basketball conference championships for the stability & scheduling ease for its athletic program as a whole.

Air Force has sacrificed basketball conference championships, but has not heretofore sacrificed the basketball players. I don't think you can make it work logistically in any sport other than football without totally ruining the athletes student and academic lives. Hopefully, that is more important to everyone involved in the universities than conference stability.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Air Force has sacrificed basketball conference championships, but has not heretofore sacrificed the basketball players. I don't think you can make it work logistically in any sport other than football without totally ruining the athletes student and academic lives. Hopefully, that is more important to everyone involved in the universities than conference stability.

I agree on two fronts here. I think that the football only membership is not a desireable thing long term. I also think that forcing the travel that would be required of all athetlic programs right now in the big east, set to join would complete undermine, without question, the concept of student, in student-athlete.

I think that the only way to bring in a unified front, is that in the future, the big east conference further expands it's membership such that east and west divisions compromise a full slate of 10-12 institutions such that the non-revenue sports, as well as football and basketball, each play complete season schedules individually, and then east/west division winners would compete in a national championship for all sports. Basketball could run their own east/west division tournaments, with each tournament winner playing an additional championship game.

If you're going to set a vision, make it big.

Such a structure, would provide the framework, for the end of the BCS, and the formation of true playoff among division 1-A for a national championship in football.

 

[Rumrunner]

Boise State's non-football sports are in a real pickle. There's talk that the WAC might close up shop by the summer. The WCC, where SDSU is headed, doesn't want Boise. I can't see Providence, Seton Hall, and the other bb schools /BE powers going for Boise.

 

[John Greene]

Boise State's non-football sports are in a real pickle. There's talk that the WAC might close up shop by the summer. The WCC, where SDSU is headed, doesn't want Boise. I can't see Providence, Seton Hall, and the other bb schools /BE powers going for Boise.

Memphis rather than BSU arriving early would be more likely, but why wouldn't BSU (which has been told it is the saviour of BE FB) not try to leverage that position into an all sports. From their perspective they already send all teams long distances from Boise.

 

[Rumrunner]

I think Boise would want to leverage its position to get an all sports invite, and perhaps attempt build a 10 team western all-sports division. The problem is the powers that be that run the conference, the catholic schools, don't want it.

This is a conference that just invited Memphis, the most putrid fbs program in the land. Providence rules the Big East, as taught by BC, VaTech, Miami, Pitt, Syracuse, TCU and WVU.

 

[John Greene]

I think Boise would want to leverage its position to get an all sports invite, and perhaps attempt build a 10 team western all-sports division. The problem is the powers that be that run the conference, the catholic schools, don't want it.

This is a conference that just invited Memphis, the most putrid fbs program in the land. Providence rules the Big East, as taught by BC, VaTech, Miami, Pitt, Syracuse, TCU and WVU.

I dream of a world in which UConn has the power to determine its own athletic future. It's great to talk about our accomplishments in M&W BB. Sadly all of that seems to matter less and less. Have we really become a pawn to be played by Providence and BSU? I can't belive that is the case but it sure feels that way at times.

 

[metsfan2323]

I hate to say it, but i'm sure the merged MWC / CUSA conference will at some point make a respectable all sports pitch to Boise and SDSU.

A far fetched solution to the problem of what Boise and SDSU can do with their other sports would be for the Big East to expand to 16 football schools by adding 4 more football only, western schools, at that point you have six western members that can form a new all sports league for everything but football. If they could then pitch a Gonzaga, and other basketball onlies (Pepperdine?) you could form a new 9 or 10 team western conference, basically a true western version of the hybrid Big East.

 

[businesslawyer]

If there is no WAC, Boise just moves its other programs to the Big Sky.

If the WAC is going, it's going. Boise leaving MWC one year earlier isn't going to change anything in the long run -- it's still leaving MWC.

 

[John Greene]

I hate to say it, but i'm sure the merged MWC / CUSA conference will at some point make a respectable all sports pitch to Boise and SDSU.

A far fetched solution to the problem of what Boise and SDSU can do with their other sports would be for the Big East to expand to 16 football schools by adding 4 more football only, western schools, at that point you have six western members that can form a new all sports league for everything but football. If they could then pitch a Gonzaga, and other basketball onlies (Pepperdine?) you could form a new 9 or 10 team western conference, basically a true western version of the hybrid Big East.

I am afraid you may be correct. 16 FB schools a couple of dozen BB schools. We could have our own BCS and form our own bracket in March. Wouldn't that be great for our TV contract. (Sorry didn't mean to go all Carl on you.) Too bad it's not cocktail hour in Bham yet. But then again the sun is below the yard arm somewhere in the world.

 

[SubbaBub]

The settlement with WVU, from what we know, only makes sense if Boise if in next year. If that's the case, there was no irreperable harm, you were never going to get an injunction and $20M is a great result.

If Boise isn't coming in next year, someone will have to then explain the strategy. that having been said, the Big East used reputable counsel and I'm still betting that Boise playing in league next year, and just taking over WVU's in conference schedule, is all but done.

I read some speculation that the fear that the WV court would not uphold/enforce an injunction issued by the RI court factored in the decision to settle.

Doesn't seem plausible to me how one court would get involved with another courts injunction. Would this be even possible?

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[Nostical]

If Fred Smith (FedEx) is willing to pay all the C-USA penalties, I see Memphis as the more logical early entry candidate. They actually seem to want it more than the others.

 

[businesslawyer]

I read some speculation that the fear that the WV court would not uphold/enforce an injunction issued by the RI court factored in the decision to settle.

Doesn't seem plausible to me how one court would get involved with another courts injunction. Would this be even possible?

Well, everything factors into the amount of a settlement. It is certainly possible that a WV state court wouldn't enforce the injunction, but I would assume you could get federal court intervention. And you could have gotten a CT judge to enforce it, and walk it to Bristol and demand ESPN not assist WV in ignoring the injunction.

More importantly, there is so much about the litigation and the backdrop we don't know. Among what I'd love to know is the following:

1. Why didn't the Big East by-laws clearly provide for all members to submit to the jurisdiction of one particular court? Did the Big East by-laws have a provisions where all members agreed to specific performance as a remedy? If not, was there a reason for these omissions or did the lawyers just screw up (or did Providence not call the lawyers in the first place)?

2. Why in the world wasn't a related action brought against ESPN at the same time? DeFillipo's comments, while quote possibly mostly just empty bragging, was enough to get you past summary judgment with no more evidence whatsoever. Is the Big East afraid of ESPN? Is there some backroom deal that was already agreed to that mollified the Big East?

3. Most importantly, at least from the perspective that we elect these guys, why nothing from Malloy and Jepsen. We enter into a new deal with ESPN to expand in Bristol and within months, if you believe DeFillippo, they're screwing the State of Connecticut. Did we talk to them and get convinced that they weren't behind the ACC raid? Did a political calculation occur in which UConn's athletic interests were sacrificed to job creation (which, based on numbers, might be the best thing for the state)? Is ESPN already helping us behind the scenes for a future round? Or is our leadership just chicken?

I don't know that we'll ever know the answer to any of this, and without these answers on a level of detail we won't ever really know what led to the current settlement. It also makes it hard to point fingers not knowing the answers to all of this. Not that I expect it to stop people.

 

[Mr Blueskin]

I hope it doesn't have anything to do with Malloy graduating from BC and him not fighting for or caring about where UConn athletics end up. All questions I beg to see answered on here one day.

 

[NEforceUConn]

Three related things:

1) On BL's point on BE jurisdiction - for the conference to not specify what courts (state) enforce disputes is reprehensible. Any minor legal contract agreement defines what courts hear disputes.

2) As a further point of possible BE conference incompetence (and we have heard it before) - for the BE not to know that the ACC could renegotiate their ESPN contract, or for the BE NOT to have a renegotiation clause themselves years ago (come on down Temple and UCF), is incompetant.

3) Lastly I am not keen on WVU dollars being recycled to BSU to come to the BE, BUT I think it would BE AWESOME if BSU joins the BE, runs the table, and BEATS oklahoma in the NC game. That would be s w e e t !!!!! F@#& the Big 12 and everyone else.

 

[CL82]

2. Why in the world wasn't a related action brought against ESPN at the same time? DeFillipo's comments, while quote possibly mostly just empty bragging, was enough to get you past summary judgment with no more evidence whatsoever. Is the Big East afraid of ESPN? Is there some backroom deal that was already agreed to that mollified the Big East?

Because bringing current and future business partners into a lawsuit on a tenuous basis isn't a recipe for future success?