Realignment II: It Begins
Phase II of the realignment wars has begun: the five remaining football members of the Big East have sued Miami, Boston College and the ACC. (The Connecticut Attorney General’s office offers a PDF copy of the suit itself.) The five schools hired an extremely high-powered NYC law firm, and filed the lawsuit in Connecticut Superior Court. The schools’ presidents are being led by West Virginia University president David Hardesty, who is a Harvard Law School alumnus.
The only thing surprising about this suit is that it happened before the ACC made its formal invitation to the three to join. Syracuse was going to be left out of any vindictive moves by the left-behind five, as SU has appeared throughout to be a reluctant party to this mess (basketball coach Jim Boeheim has been overtly hostile to it). Connecticut has always been in the lead of legal action; UConn has the most financial exposure ($90 million), a very ambitious state Attorney General, and the worst prospects of any of the five, as their I-A football program is just two years old.
The Pittsburgh and WVU presidents have held press conferences already; Tech’s is scheduled for 2:15 PM. I’m writing this on lunch break, but expect updates over the weekend. This is gonna be a bumpy ride, but highly entertaining.
6 June 2003 / 0 Comments / Tags: realignment