Forced Conference Membership/Antitrust Issues
by VT2ND (2020-07-31 13:39:29)
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I thought I would raise this for the board because I have not seen it discussed here or elsewhere. But (directing this primarily to other board attorneys), but wouldn't we have a pretty good antitrust argument if the conferences/bowls/etc. ultimately made it impossible for us to compete in major college football without being a member of a conference?

I'm pretty sure that the NCAA could not mandate that we be part of a conference, for reasons similar to why the NCAA cannot restrict television rights of its members schools. But what about the tie-in agreements between the bowls and the conferences? What if the CFB Playoff dictated that you had to be a conference champion to participate? What if the conferences made rules where member schools could only play each other (i.e., no out-of-conference games)?

I keep hearing about the "changing landscape" of college football, but I'm having trouble coming up with a way where we could be forced into conference membership without there being a possible competition issue. Of course, practically speaking, I think that Jack and Co. would rather kowtow to the conference overlords, as opposed to fighting it.

Define “forced into a conference.” If the benefits outweigh
by 1NDGal  (2020-08-01 21:05:31)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

the compulsion, then what is the anticompetitive harm?

And who is going to lodge a Sherman II claim of group boycott? Savvy? Nope.
Explain what those benefits are.
by VT2ND  (2020-08-02 20:05:40)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

The harm is easy. For one, we would have to forfeit our media rights to be part of a conference collective where conference members are part of a single media package and split money equally. Us into the ACC would dramatically increase the value of its TV contracts, and that money gets split evenly. Great for Wake Forest, bad for us.
Every P5 team already makes more tv deal $ than ND.
by SavageDragon  (2020-08-03 13:03:37)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

Yes, our entrance would increase the value of the ACC rights deal, certainly. But their existing deal is already more, so we'd see a TV revenue increase from joining:

Each full ACC school gets $30MM already. ND gets about $8MM from the ACC and between $15-20MM from NBC.

(This isn't an argument that we should join a conference, for the record.)
ACC could make a case that ND would make more $$ as a
by 1NDGal  (2020-08-03 08:16:43)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

football member than what it makes now.

First, though, an anticompetitive act must be alleged. Swarbrick would never do it.