Well, you asked how to calculate damages, and I told you. Tortious interference is not hard to prove. The elements are: (1) the existence of a valid and enforceable contract between plaintiff and another (yes); (2) defendant’s awareness of the contractual relationship )yes); (3) defendant’s intentional and unjustified inducement of a breach of the contract (alleged by Big12 ); (4) a breach by the other party caused by defendant’s wrongful conduct (not yet ripe), but ; and (5) damages ( seems eminently provable). ESPN would want to hang their hat on No. 4, which is why Texas and OU have publicly said they are sticking around through end of term. The OSU situation appears to another case, which in concert with the Texas and OU situation, raise the question whether there is a potential RICO case. Beyond tortuous interference, claims based upon unfair trade practices and fraud in the inducement (possibly going back to ESPN paying up to dissuade the Big12 from expanding ) might also be in play. Obviously, until more info is known, it is difficult to say ESPN did something wrongful, though the optics do not look great.
