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GREENSBORO, North Carolina - The Big East and
Atlantic Coast Conferences have decided to make nice off the
field. One day after the Hartford Courant reported on its web site that
four Big East universities had settled their legal conflicts
with the ACC, Miami and Boston College, the ACC admitted such a
deal has been made but said some of the details in the report
were not accurate - and not much else. On Tuesday night, the Courant reported that Connecticut,
Pittsburgh, Rutgers and West Virginia of the Big East had agreed
to a settlement worth about $5 million, ending their legal
conflicts with the ACC, Miami and Boston College. "Reports suggesting the extent to which the ACC contributed to
the settlement are inaccurate and misleading," ACC legal counsel
Erik Albright said in a statement Wednesday. "We are limited
by the express terms of the agreement from commenting further. "The ACC previously had been dismissed from the litigation and
this settlement brings to a conclusion the lawsuits against
Boston College and Miami as well as any appeals." After a Freedom of Information request by the Courant, the
office of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal
released documents that showed UConn has received $1 million as
its share of the settlement. Unidentified sources told the
newspaper that the other three schools received an identical
amount. The document does not specify the exact settlement amount or how
the payment was split between the ACC, Miami and Boston
College, according to the report. As a result of the agreement, which the newspaper said was
finalized April 27 in Rockville Superior Court, Boston College
will withdraw from the Big East on June 30 and join the ACC the
following day. Boston College will not have to pay a withdrawal fee, which is
mandated by the Big East constitution, but a source told the
newspaper that an additional $1 million of the settlement will
serve the purpose of an exit fee. In June 2003, after the ACC announced plans to expand northward,
Blumenthal filed a lawsuit accusing Big East Conference schools
Miami and Boston College and the ACC of "a backroom conspiracy,
born in secrecy, founded on greed, and carried out through
calculated deceit." That summer, Miami and Virginia Tech - originally a plaintiff in
the lawsuit - announced they were leaving the Big East for the
2004-05 season. Boston College accepted the ACC's invitation
that October. "Per the legal agreement between all parties involved, I am not
able to comment directly on the settlement," ACC Commissioner
John D. Swofford said. "I can tell you that we are truly
excited to have Boston College join the ranks of the Atlantic
Coast Conference as Miami and Virginia Tech did a year ago. We
certainly look forward to a bright future as a 12-member
league." The suit had been scheduled for trial in September until the
parties agreed to mediation.
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