College Athletics

Greetings,

There are a number of legal issues happening on a national level that I am almost not sure which one to write about. But, I have more information regarding a recent college athletics suit that I will begin there.

Recently (and if you're not a college sports fan a lot of this may be new information), the major football collegiate athletic conferences have experienced some dramatic realignments. Schools that have been competing against each other in the same conference for decades have moved on to greener pastures, mostly due to television and endorsement contracts. Three notable cases include Pittsburgh and Syracuse moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Texas A&M moving from the Big 12 to the SEC. Some of these shifts, however, have come with a price.

Most conferences contract with their members to allow them to move to another conference as long as they pay some kind of exit fee. These fees run in excess of around $10 million when we talk about the larger conferences. And with the recent increase in conference realignments, some conferences have raised that exit fee even more. Additionally conferences have required schools to go through a waiting period as long as two years before they can join another conference.

West Virginia University is attempting to leave the Big East and enter the Big 12, a move that would increase their football revenue dramatically. The Big East is not sitting idly by and allowing West Virginia to exit quietly, and thus, West Virginia instituted a lawsuit against the Big East Conference which can be viewed here (all links courtesy of ESPN):

http://espn.go.com/photo/preview/!pdfs/ncaa_westvirginiasuit.pdf

This suit is very interesting, as West Virginia alleges a breach of contract action against the Big East Conference. Reading the complaint, it brings back memories of the first legal brief I wrote in law school, which was also set in Monongalia County, West Virginia. The case also paints a very real image of what college athletics, and especially football, is all about right now: money.

West Virginia wishes to get out of the Big East so it can take advantage of the lucrative television contracts owned by the Big 12. College Athletics departments are so dependent on their football revenue to keep them in the black that you can hardly blame West Virginia for jumping ship. The Big East continues to lose football members because it has allowed schools to join that don't have football and thus can't compete against other conferences that have big football money. It is sad to say but college football is very much a business that keeps most athletic departments afloat.

Being a former collegiate student-athlete, my feelings are mixed on these issues. Part of me really wishes that schools with such rich rivalries would stick together so that fans can continue to take part in annual games. But the reality is most schools are going to look out for themselves, especially when only a few schools turn a profit on athletics every year. College football is not as imbalanced as other college sports, but sometimes it does turn your stomach when you know that these athletes are killing themselves playing this game and the athletic department only cares about how many season tickets they have sold. Dare I say there needs to be more transparency in these decisions, but these schools are independent and can make their own choices. I just hope that all these conference shifts don't taint an otherwise great game.

More soon,
Dave