BCS AND CONTRACT LAW

James Joyner · Saturday, January 3, 2004 · 1 Comment

Steve Bainbridge ponders the legal implications of the Bowl Championship Series contract:

If I were teaching Contracts, this would be my exam question: “As I understand it, the college football coaches poll is contractually obligated to name the winner of the BCS championship game its national champ. Suppose a majority of the coaches vote for USC as #1. Would the trophy go to the winner of the Oklahoma-LSU game, while the poll showed USC as #1? Or could the winner of the Oklahoma-LSU game get specific performance to compel the coaches to vote its team #1 in the poll? Discuss.”

As a non-lawyer, I’d say you’d have to read the contract to know the answer. But I suspect most lawyers would say that the contract is only fodder for making whatever argument you’re hired to make.

FILED UNDER: Sports

None Found

About James Joyner
James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. Follow James on Twitter.

Comments

bryan says:

Saturday, January 3, 2004 at 20:31

More to the point, why can’t the colleges get out of the BCS contract before 2005. Colleges fire coaches all the time with years remaining on the contract. With the BCS’ record of avoiding controversy hovering at about .500, I think they should fire the whole thing. Frank Solich was way better than this.

—

Helpful or Unhelpful: 0 0