(02-26-2014 09:31 AM)quo vadis Wrote: (02-25-2014 04:21 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote: (02-25-2014 11:58 AM)quo vadis Wrote: Boise never participated as a member of our conference so i would be OK with waving the fee.
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The Big East learned this lesson the hard way... You NEVER "waive" a fee. That was part-and-parcel of the WVU lawsuit that sought to leave without penalty following TCU's aborted entry to the conference. WVU agrued, with some traction before the suit was settled, that because the BE had amicably...and even had assisted...TCU's jump from the BE to the B12, that indicated that the BE was being arbitrary in compelling WVU to pay a larger fee for their departure.
You don't have to be nasty about it, but a contract is a contract. If the contract says "BSU joined the BE..." whether they ever played a game or not, and the fee for leaving the BE (now legally referred to as "The American Athletic Conference") was $5MM, then Boise State just has to ante up and pay the sucker.
I don't think the Big East learned any lesson the hard way. The Big East/AAC was quite successful in collecting exit fees from WVU and others that left.
I would have been OK with not collecting from TCU as well, for the same reason, though since TCU was leaving for the big-money Big 12, I can understand why we squeezed them, LOL.
No... We did not "squeeze" them because they were heading for "big money." The destination is not the issue. You require payment because it was in the terms of the contract, pure and simple.
The minute you give a "waiver," the precedent is set that others don't have to live up to that provision of the contract. Marinatto tried being magnanimous and "the nice guy" and it did nothing but screw us (vis-à-vis the conference) over. You remember the little thing where Marinatto sent flowers to Wofford for something or another? It's part of the record that when the B12 first approached TCU to formally inquire about their ability to move, TCU went to Marinatto to see how complicated it would be and Marinatto responded by saying something along the lines of "We'll work it out, don't worry about it..." And how did TCU repay that niceness? They tried to get out of paying their exit fee. How did WVU use all that? To try and get out of paying their exit fee.
The Conference isn't being "mean" when it holds members to paying their due fees. And it isn't being "nice" when it lets them not pay those fees. The Conference isn't a "person," it's a corporation. Is McDonald's being nice when they say to the person in front of you in line "Don't worry about paying for it?" And are they then being "mean" when they demand that you pay for your "Quarter-pounder with cheese"?
TCU had to pay their exit fee because that was the contract they signed. Boise State will pay their exit fee because that was the contract they signed. It's not personal. It's not being "nice" nor is it being "mean." It's not about "squeezing" someone because they're off to a "power conference" nor is it about having sympathy because a school isn't off to a "power conference." It's just the contract.
(Beyond that though, Boise acted poorly towards the AAC, IMO. So even if it were personal, I'd hold them to every damn penny. It was Boise's decision to renege on entering the conference that caused SDSU to need to leave as well and that's an established fact. If Boise and SDSU had stayed in the American, there were all sorts of possible solutions--good and bad--to add teams in the west to placate them. SDSU gets a pass BECAUSE of the contract... but Boise, in purely personal terms, most certainly does not... But this isn't about "personal".)
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Boise State still owes us 5 million dollars.
