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Message: [QUOTE="RASWVU, post: 293476, member: 2285"] Getting out of the BE and the current B12 are completely different. WVU had to breach the contract to leave. It was well accepted that the BE was not going to be able to legally compel WVU to participate in the conference for 27 months against their will. Therefore, it was up to the courts, or as it turned out, a negotiation, to determine the amount of damages. Texas does not need to breach their B12 contract to leave. They can just wave goodbye right now and walk out the door. No breach, no buyout, no forced participation, against their will. They just cannot take their media rights with them. They no longer own them, at least for the next 6 years. They were signed over to the B12 and are property of the conference. They were given over voluntarily in return for membership in the B12 for the next 6 years. If Texas would decide to voluntarily forgo their membership rights in the B12, they are free to do so at any time. They just cannot take conference property with them. They probably could purchase that property for a negotiated price, or the B12 could just decide to hang on to it. I have no doubt, that if Texas decided to leave, they could start a legal process to try and regain posession of their media rights, but since that ownership currently belongs to the B12, while that lengthy process was going on without any certainty as to the outcome, any new league would have to take Texas on a leap of faith that they would prevail in the legal battle and eventually regain ownership. Since the B12 has resold those media rights to ESPN and ESPN is obligated to send their checks to the B12, I cannot fathom that they would suddenly divert those payments to the PAC 12 without a court finding ordering them to do so. They could find themselves with some serious legal problems. In short, when WVU left the BE they told the conference in no uncertain terms that they would not be participating in any conference games or activities after July 1 2012. There was no way the conference could legally compel WVU athletic teams to perform against their will. Then it just became a matter of determining damages. On the contrary, Texas could notify the B12 that they will not compete in any conference activities after tomorrow. The B12 would not make any move to compel them to do so. They would not consider them in breach of their contract. They would just wish them well, send them on their way and continue to receive the media rights checks for all of Texas' Tier 1 and Tier 2 broadcasts for the next 6 years. [/QUOTE]

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