(02-15-2022 05:46 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  I had lunch with someone who works in the UAB athletic office today.

The specific issue the SB3 is going to run into is that they are contractually obligated to play 4 CUSA road games this fall and each of those teams will claim significant damages if they just dont show up. Specifically in contract law, willfully breaking the contract allows the plaintiff to collect treble damages for a defendant willfully breaking the contract, which the defendants in this case have kindly gone out of their way to prove beyond any reasonable doubt.

The damages we are talking about here aren't coming from CUSA,, but damages for each team who is abiding by the contract and losing a contractually agreed to home game against teams that are willfully breaking it. Damages from that being everything from lost ticket revenue, to resultant penalties caused by breaking existing stadium contracts for everything from parking & concession vendors, to lost TV revenue, to the inevitable need to settle lawsuits with season ticket holders when the games get cancelled officially, which would not happen until the week of the game. He said that UAB had no motivation at all to even try to look for a replacement for the Marshall and USM home games when they could just sit back and collect what "would likely approach eight figures in damages" between the two lost home games and that doing so was essentially low risk high reward because UAB is gone soon anyway and couldn't care less about how CUSA or the SB3 comes out optically.

The word from the UAB side basically boils down to the feeling that while everyone wants to leave CUSA as soon as they can, the three schools who just gleefully announced they were willfully breaking a contract were getting some comically inept legal advice as to the consequences of doing so, and that CUSA was hoping and praying that the Sunbelt would try and put the three teams on their schedule this fall.

Just caught this on the realignment board.... Tens of millions of dollars in damages because of losing these games? That would make USM, Marshall and ODU worth more than CUSA's entire TV contract.

(02-17-2022 10:21 AM)b2b Wrote:  

(02-15-2022 05:46 PM)BlazerMatt Wrote:  I had lunch with someone who works in the UAB athletic office today.

The specific issue the SB3 is going to run into is that they are contractually obligated to play 4 CUSA road games this fall and each of those teams will claim significant damages if they just dont show up. Specifically in contract law, willfully breaking the contract allows the plaintiff to collect treble damages for a defendant willfully breaking the contract, which the defendants in this case have kindly gone out of their way to prove beyond any reasonable doubt.

The damages we are talking about here aren't coming from CUSA,, but damages for each team who is abiding by the contract and losing a contractually agreed to home game against teams that are willfully breaking it. Damages from that being everything from lost ticket revenue, to resultant penalties caused by breaking existing stadium contracts for everything from parking & concession vendors, to lost TV revenue, to the inevitable need to settle lawsuits with season ticket holders when the games get cancelled officially, which would not happen until the week of the game. He said that UAB had no motivation at all to even try to look for a replacement for the Marshall and USM home games when they could just sit back and collect what "would likely approach eight figures in damages" between the two lost home games and that doing so was essentially low risk high reward because UAB is gone soon anyway and couldn't care less about how CUSA or the SB3 comes out optically.

The word from the UAB side basically boils down to the feeling that while everyone wants to leave CUSA as soon as they can, the three schools who just gleefully announced they were willfully breaking a contract were getting some comically inept legal advice as to the consequences of doing so, and that CUSA was hoping and praying that the Sunbelt would try and put the three teams on their schedule this fall.

Just caught this on the realignment board.... Tens of millions of dollars in damages because of losing these games? That would make USM, Marshall and ODU worth more than CUSA's entire TV contract.

The entirety of economic activity in a college football game is not defined by one component. Look at the partial list provided above.