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
