When the ACC voted in September to immediately raise its exit fee to three times its annual operating budget - around $50 million - the move was seen as an important step in maintaining the league's future stability, a way to prove to its schools the strength of the conference and make it more difficult to sever ties.
Maryland, which announced its intention to join the Big Ten this week, could use that very language to mount a challenge if it wants to push back against the ACC's exit fee.
If the ACC reached its new figure through future forecasts of what losing a member school could cost, the fee is legally sound.
If Maryland can prove the exit fee is meant to be punitive against schools leaving rather than a reflection of projected loss, the school could make some ground in whittling the figure down.
"That language doesn't help," said Timothy Davis, a professor of sport and contract law at the Wake Forest School of Law. "That's the type of language Maryland will likely play to to bolster its case, that the intention was not to try to come up with a reasonable estimate of what the ACC's losses would be, but merely to try to penalize."
"That is not a function of contract damages."
.../cont/...
