It makes perfect sense.
The argument of 'duress' is nonsense.
They could have gone independent schedule.
They entered the agreement with the MWC in bad faith never intending to honor the poaching fees.
The PAC absolutely thought UNLV would break ranks along with USU.
The MWC would have folded. AFA would have bolted to AAC.
Gloria would have been forced to hold the MWC together with UNM/WYO/RENO/SJSU. Would have tried to get UH to stay. Would they? Doubt it. Is NIU joining that mess?
It would be merge with CUSA or dissolve the conference. I don't think there was a path to rebuild at that point.
The PAC signed an agreement that was written with the direct purpose of dissuading poaching. They poached anyway because they never intended to honor it.
You have a lot of faith in a brain trust over in the PAC that basically pitched to Memphis and Tulane 'Trust me bro it's gonna be great' Then offered to pay 2.5 million of a nearly 20 million dollar buyout. How do you approach them with no media deal in place or estimates that were obviously not even in the ballpark of getting them to jump.
PAC will be better, they also vastly over estimate their own worth.
Congrats on spending millions and millions of dollars to create the top G6 conference.
Which a merger would have accomplished anyway...Since the MWC was already viewed as top Group of..
The PAC had no intention of honoring it and every intention of crippling the MWC to the point they wouldn't have to.
But they themselves were crushed by realignment down to 2 members, and they held it together.
Sh!t just rolls down hill.
So you think after playing hardball with Gloria, and losing, that they thought by taking 5-6 teams the MW would just fold and give up? Worst case they would reverse merge with the CUSA to keep the NCAAT credits. It would be easier for the MW to rebuild than the PAC. We talked about that at the time, but the consensus was they would 9 teams to make that idea full proof.
That is a huge risk, and it cost them millions, up front and with potential for even more down the road.
It doesn't matter what happened after the fact, what matters is why even sign the agreement if they had legitimate other options?
By signing the agreement, they pay well over 3 x market value to fill out their schedule, open themselves to possible collusion, and face potentially 150+ in fees that they have to get the courts to talk down. Fees that according to you, could have been 100% avoided.
I agree they signed the agreement in bad faith, as Loyal Coug pointed out, talks for a merger were a part of the agreement, and it seems like serious talks never really happened.
Why not just schedule without an agreement, since it is so easy to do, pay a more reasonable price for last year's games. be able to poach all the teams from the MW without the extra penalty and save them millions? Just because they are betting that the MW will fold?
OR
They actually were backed in a corner and this was their best option.
Sorry, it doesn't make sense.
And the speculation that they are going to be able to get out of some of these fees does seem to give validity to their arguments
