Conference exit fee lawsuits
The state’s lawsuit against the ACC regarding a $52 million exit fee will not move forward until a North Carolina case against the university is settled, a Prince George’s County judge decided June 28.
Though both sides were hoping to fight lawsuits in their home states, Judge John Paul Davey wrote that two ongoing lawsuits could result in “inconsistent and/or competing determinations of fact and law.” He also dismissed this state’s antitrust claim.
After the university announced in November it would leave the ACC for the revenue-sharing Big Ten, the ACC quickly filed its suit in its home state of North Carolina to ensure the university pays the entirety of its exit fee. Maryland retorted with its own lawsuit in January.
When making the announcement, university President Wallace Loh said the fee is punitive and illegal, and he expected to negotiate a lower fee.
This month, the university joined the Big Ten’s Committee on Institutional Cooperation, an academic consortium of the conference’s universities and the University of Chicago. The university will join the conference in all sports in the 2014-2015 school year.
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