Article on possible Boise move for 2012

[businesslawyer]

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

Well, that is true to a degree. You don't bring the suit first and then talk -- you talk first and say you've backed us into a corner and you have to give us something or we will have no choice. That may, or may not, have happened. That is why it's an unanswered question.

 

[IthacaMatt]

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 think you're right. The Big East has papered over its problems for now, and put together a rather attractive package of football schools. But to really survive, there needs to be some kind of mega-merger with more west coast schools for all sports. The problem, though, is that you still have all those basketball onlies, and they still own more votes when the conference sits down at the big table. Absent a more solid mega-merger, Boise and SD St. probably won't be here long term. Eventually, as the other western conferences reconfigure, there is going to be a better fit out there, likely after the BCS auto bids are done away with.

 

[IthacaMatt]

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.

They didn't go after ESPN, because they were smart enough to know that if there was no one to bid against NBC for the next contract, it would be a terrible deal. They are trying not to bite the hand that feeds them. Even tho ESPN stabbed the Big East through the heart, and was probably behind the ACC poaching SU & Pitt after the conference turned down the contract, the Big East still needs them. All the court papers, and all the public statements showed the Big East holding back, when they had plenty of ammunition to go after ESPN, I completely agree.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

They didn't go after ESPN, because they were smart enough to know that if there was no one to bid against NBC for the next contract, it would be a terrible deal. They are trying not to bite the hand that feeds them. Even tho ESPN stabbed the Big East through the heart, and was probably behind the ACC poaching SU & Pitt after the conference turned down the contract, the Big East still needs them. All the court papers, and all the public statements showed the Big East holding back, when they had plenty of ammunition to go after ESPN, I completely agree.

There are other competitive bidders to ESPN and NBC, and NBC is smart enough to realize that it is in their interest to have a stabilized Big East, so a low ball bid would be counter productive.

 

[huskyjawz]

There are other competitive bidders to ESPN and NBC, and NBC is smart enough to realize that it is in their interest to have a stabilized Big East, so a low ball bid would be counter productive.

They may want a stable conference, but I can't see them paying a dime more than they have to.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

They may want a stable conference, but I can't see them paying a dime more than they have to.

More senior executives have gotten fired over the years for taking the "low bid" than just about any other single reason. Blackberry is going down in flames in part because it designed its next generation phones using a chip that can't be produced in scale but was cheap. Business people are smart enough to understand the value of a fair bid over the lowest possible bid they can get at that moment.