BE asks that WV lawsuit be dismissed
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MaxwellCuse
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Will a West Virginia court dismiss or yield to a Rhode Island court? Will John Marinatto be eating sushi tonight?
orange79
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You're kidding, right? WV signed the deal committing to the new rules. And you really think NO court will try to hold them to that? Or is my sarcasm meter on the fritz?
IthacaMatt
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I got hammered on the UConn conference expansion board for several of my comments at the time the WVU suit was filed, but I have a hard time believing that a state entity (WVU) is going to be sued anyplace but its home state. I'll bet that there's no jurisdiction & venue clause in the by-laws, since the Big East hasn't done a great job with having the proper documentation to support a league - for example, the Big East didn't exist as a legal entity until the 2003 raid. How does a conference go 24 years without having a business entity?
Although the WVU complaint was a steaming pile of poo, in that it was written so badly, I think that the basis for having the suit heard in West Virginia is stronger than having it heard elsewhere. Providence (Rhode Island) isn't even the place where the Big East's 501(c)(3) not-for-profit entity was incorporated, when they finally got around to it in 2003. They incorporated in Washington DC. So I think that's going to hurt them in their forum fight. The only reason the parallel case was filed in Providence was for convenience of the conference staff. That's n0t a strong enough reason to overcome states' rights.
And let me add that despite how poorly the WVU complaint was written, there were a few good legal arguments in there - 1. the Big East hurt the value of WVU's media properties with the way it handled the aftermath of Raid II; and 2. the fact that there is a majority of schools who are basketball onlies voting on football expansion is a conflict of interest that harms all the football schools, and 3. allowing Notre Dame to vote on the football contract offer from ESPN that was turned down (I'm pretty sure ND voted against...) also was a conflict of interest that worked to WVU's detriment.
SU2NASA
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No court is going to file an injunction. There's a written contract, but that doesn't mean WV is going to show up for the scheduling meetings. The Big East is just going to have to sue them for damages.
And I'm not sure the Big East is going to want what would come out in a lawsuit.
