BlackGold.good find.It stood to reason that "tricky thingy" Blumenthal would refer to the ACC and Miami as criminals once too often.Action appears to be in Dade County(tough on out of state defendants) and for breach of contract and defamation.This should make things interesting.Comments?

This is a very good find of a story.

Levels the playing field completely in the legal department, and serves notice that if the BE schools want to spend useless wasted money in the courtroom, they are going to be facing the identical situation in a MiamiDade court room filled with smart wily southern lawyers that know every psychological and legal maneuver in the books. The poor counselors with the crisp eastern accents will never know what hit them.

It will provide very powerful motivation to end the silly courtroom posturing and get on with the business at hand, improving the BE on the playing field.

:D

Blackgold,too early to tell.Arguably should hasten an overall settlement.

Javaman,yes,the field is at least level and then some.Dade county juries known for being very plaintiff oriented.
Comments?

My quick thought was simply if the conference domino's are coming, will the lawsuits do the same? Shouldn't the CUSA schools sue the BE if Louisville and Cincy leave? It's is silly to get the courts involved, but I agree with the other posts, Boston College might be able to move to the ACC earlier and maybe even cheaper. Did Miami hire Kobe's lawyer? 8-)

So if this ends up going to a jury in Dade County, will it be hanging chad jurors of the 2000 Presidential election fame ;D?

Big difference in the 2 lawsuits.

Miami will have to prove damages. That will be very difficult to do.

The weak link in the charges by the Big East has always been the accusations against the ACC. The lawsuit has never been about raiding another conference. MIami & & BC sat on boards & committees, in which roles they were legally obligated to advance the interests of the Big East. They did just the opposite. Had they been forthright with the league about their intentions, there never would have been a lawsuit. Just as in the case of president Clinton, it's not about the act itself, it's about lying. Officers of any organization have a legal obligation to tell their associates the truth about matters pertaining to their mutual interests.

You may have noticed that Notre Dame's behavior was just the opposite during the summer & fall. They abstained from any votes in the Big East so that there would not be a conflict of interests. They kept the league informed about what they were doing, including their conversations with the ACC. They never represented themselves to be anything other than what they were. For these same reasons, Syracuse was not sued.

As sports fans, we might just like to get this over because all it means to us is moving on with the games. But in a contractual association these things matter & they have legal consequences. The Miami counter suit is clearly an effort to force an out-of-court settlement. And it might work.

user bump