The legal battle between the University of Maryland and the Atlantic Coast Conference was kicked up a notch last month when the state of Maryland filed a $157 million countersuit against the ACC. The conference is seeking to enforce a requirement that UM pay a $52 million exit fee after UM announced that it was leaving the ACC for the Big Ten Conference.
The state, which filed its claim in a North Carolina court, alleges that the conference broke its own rules when it increased the conference’s exit fee as well as “ignored and breached the ACC Constitution in its urgency to punish Maryland and deter further withdrawals from the conference.” The ACC’s exit fee is “an antitrust violation and an illegal activity,” Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler said in a statement.
Maryland also alleged that a representative from Wake Forest and a representative from Pittsburgh “each contacted a Big Ten university in an attempt by the ACC to recruit at least two Big Ten schools to leave the Big Ten and join the ACC.” These actions, it claimed, “were designed by the ACC to enable the ACC (and member universities) to extract more lucrative terms from potential broadcast partners, including ESPN.”
In short, “the ACC has been an aggressive competitor in attempting to convince universities to leave their respective conferences and become members of the ACC,” according to the complaint.
Finally, the state alleged that the conference withheld NCAA money, $16 million, which was earmarked for UM, which officially leaves the conference this summer.
“The ACC has committed unfair acts and practices including, but not limited to, the ACC’s adoption and implementation of excessive, unreasonable and punitive Withdrawal Penalty,” Gansler added.
Michael McCann, a Massachusetts attorney and the founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of the New Hampshire School of Law, had some insightful thoughts in his column in SI.com.
“(I)n spite of the two sides’ intense bickering, their dispute will probably end in a settlement,” he wrote. “Maryland is going to join the Big Ten. Whether Maryland wants to do so free and clear of the ACC or under a cloud of litigation remains to be seen. Maryland may have to wait years for its litigation to play out in two states. Alternatively, it can try to find a mutually-acceptable dollar number with the ACC and gain closure.
“This may be especially important since litigation raises uncertainty with television and radio networks. It makes business sense for both Maryland and the ACC to resolve their dispute out-of-court and move on.”
Maryland’s countersuit against the ACC can be found here: http://bit.ly/1ho2DDV
