Pitt suing Big East over ability to leave the conference early

Pitt filed a lawsuit against the Big East Conference on Friday in Allegheny County Court in an… [Updated on May 15 at 11:15 p.m.]

The Panthers want out.

Pitt filed a lawsuit against the Big East Conference on Friday in Allegheny County Court in an effort to quicken its departure to the Atlantic Coast Conference one season earlier than permitted by the Big East.

At the root of the lawsuit is the Big East’s permission for Texas Christian University and West Virginia University to depart early from the conference for the Big 12. Pitt, which announced its intentions to move to the ACC in September, is claiming that the Big East surrendered its right to enforce the 27-month withdrawal notice because it did not hold WVU and TCU, who only announced their departures last October, to the same standards as Pitt.

Pitt’s lawsuit

On Sept. 26, 2011, Pitt notified the Big East that it would be withdrawing from the conference. Pitt paid half of the $5 million exit fee at that time and also agreed to stay in the conference until July 1, 2014. Now, however, the University wants to depart earlier.

Pitt athletics department spokesman E.J. Borghetti issued a statement from the University on Friday concerning the 34-page lawsuit brought by Pitt, saying that there has been ongoing discussion between the athletics department and conference officials concerning Pitt’s departure from the Big East. Former Big East Commissioner John Marinatto and Pitt Athletics Director Steve Pederson met recently to go over the matter, and there were hints that Pitt would be able to take its leave early.

But according to Pitt, subsequent efforts to try and move forward with the departure have been unsuccessful. University officials state that Marinatto claimed that Pitt would have to stay in the conference through the 2013-2014 season. Marinatto resigned on May 7, and Joseph Bailey III has since taken over as interim commissioner.

“Since the University of Pittsburgh made the decision to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, we have done everything possible to move through a smooth transition with the Big East,” Borghetti said in the statement. “Though we have been excluded from governance activities, meetings, decision-making and operations functions of the conference, we have been positive and respectful of the Big East.”

The Big East said it is working with Pitt to try and fix the problem. Conference spokesman John Paquette referred to his quote in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Saturday as the conference’s statement on the matter.

“We have stated previously that The Big East would be open to the possibility for Pitt to depart after the [2012-2013] season and have reached out to Pitt regarding its issue,” Paquette said. “Pitt’s filing of a lawsuit is a disappointing action.”

Pitt is also asking for unspecified monetary damages. This includes more than $500,000 in buyout and game fees from when TCU left the conference and about $250,000 in reparations paid to Central Florida, which had to cancel its game at Heinz Field this season to allow room for TCU on Pitt’s schedule.

It also includes a $320,000 fee to Gardner-Webb University, which took TCU’s spot on the schedule after the university departed from the Big East. Pitt claims there will be a negative effect on game-ticket and season-ticket sales for the replacement game with Gardner-Webb, which Pitt called a “less attractive and valuable opponent from a lower division as a result of the loss of the TCU game on short notice” in the lawsuit.

Syracuse, which also announced it was leaving the Big East in September, will not join in on Pitt’s lawsuit against the conference.

“We’ve been trying to resolve the issue of conference transition with the Big East,” Syracuse Athletic Director Daryl Gross said on Tuesday. “We’d like to avoid litigation, but we’re keeping all of our options open.”

Big East reconfigurations

Pitt isn’t the first school to slap a lawsuit on the Big East for not allowing it to leave. At the core of the Big East’s troubles is its inability to hold onto schools, resulting in a domino effect of other schools leaving for other conferences.

On Sept. 17, 2011, Pitt and Syracuse applied to join the ACC.

That same month, the University of Connecticut said it was seeking to join the ACC because the Big East was starting to appear less viable.

TCU said in 2010 it would join the Big East for the 2012-2013 season, but the school rescinded that statement on Oct. 10, 2011, and, in another blow to the Big East, went to the Big 12 for this upcoming season. The school had a quick and clean departure because it wasn’t yet a member of the conference and didn’t have to pay the $5 million exit fee.

WVU, after watching competition dwindle in the conference, accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 on Oct. 28, 2011.

But WVU’s transition also came with a university lawsuit, followed by a countersuit from the Big East.

On Oct. 31, 2011, WVU filed a lawsuit against the Big East. Central to that lawsuit was the possible departure of Pitt, the University of Connecticut and TCU, which WVU said damaged the quality of competition among the conference’s football-playing schools. UConn maintains that it will remain with Big East for the time being.

“This lack of leadership, breach of fiduciary duties by the Big East and its commissioner, and voting disparity between the football and non-football schools resulted in the Big East football conference no longer being a viable and competitive football conference,” the lawsuit stated.

The Big East filed a counter lawsuit against WVU on Nov. 4, 2011, in an attempt to force the university to comply with the conference’s bylaws by claiming a breach of contract.

The two parties ultimately reached an out-of-court settlement that resulted in the university paying an unspecified amount of money and being released from the waiting period for leaving the Big East.

The Big East had to scramble recently to rebuild the conference after three of its main members — Syracuse, Pitt and WVU — bolted for different conferences. In order to maintain the strength of competition available in the conference and thereby keep its BCS automatic-qualifier status, it brought in Boise State, Houston, Memphis, Navy, San Diego State, Southern Methodist University, Temple and University of Central Florida.

“Beginning with the 2013-2014 season, the Big East will actually have four more football-playing schools and more schools overall than when we gave notice that we were moving to a difference conference,” Borghetti said.