Exit fees could be increased to protect other teams in league who have no chance of getting out. I guess civil discussion is no long possible on any message board. Look I understand that it would make sense to lower the exit fee. But to protect themselves from losing teams they can jack up the exit fees claiming that they would be ultimately harmed by a team or two leaving since that would destroy the leagues deal. A deal that is ultimately better then what they will have once realignment takes its final death march. This is just putting one and two together. Nothing more nothing less. Sounds alot like what Blumenthal did when he sued everyone under the sun. UConn would still leave but the payout would be much larger and once they all have equal voting power there is 6 of them in Group B and only 4 in group A
Let's call a spade a spade here - you didn't read the article thoroughly or you misunderstood it.
Which is basically why you just edited this post - in the future, it's far easier to say "oops" than it is to scramble up a defense.
Anywho, for the amount of money that is involved, the exit fees are very, very high - basically, any adjustment upwards would in effect be targeting only Connecticut and Cincinnati and likely would be viewed as punitive should it come to legal jousting.
There is really no upwards direction that they can vote in that would discourage the "A" group should they receive an offer from one of the five power-conferences. If it's $20M and the Big 12 calls Cincy, that check gets written without a second thought.
So the argument can be made that a lower exit fee is actually better on some levels for Houston or Tulane or whoever else - if they sense instability and have the option to jump somewhere that looks more secure, it might be in their interests to do so and the current $10M fee would be a formidable impediment.
Bottom line...I don't think the exit fee is much of a concern.
