Quote Originally Posted by Libertine View Post
Your last sentence may be true but the first sentence is incorrect; every FCS program was damaged financially in 2020 by the decision to postpone the season. EKU's argument is that the OVC failed their member institutions and the fact that EKU managed to squeeze a nine-game season out of nothing was thanks to their own effort after the fact. Whether they ended up playing nine games with three FBS or two games against Bishop Sycamore is completely irrelevant. Imagine it this way: if your HOA accidentally sets fire to your house, it was damaged regardless of whether you managed to limit the fire to the back porch or whether it burned the home to the ground.

What's interesting about this case is that EKU's circumstances are not at all unique; however, contracts are specifically stipulated agreements and the parties to those contracts are not obligated to give each other flexibility outside of those agreements simply due to extenuating circumstances. Further, neither are the courts. If COVID had never happened and OVC cancelled the season, this would be an obvious no-brainer that, yes, the OVC failed their members and breached their contract. I haven't read the OVC constitution or conference agreement but I would bet that it more than likely contains a force majeure (act of God) clause but, to this point, there is still no court ruling determining that 'COVID=force majeure'. So, from a strictly legal standpoint, EKU might have a point.

Here's where it gets really interesting, though. As I said before, every FCS program was financially damaged by their conference's decision to ditch the Fall 2020 schedule. Let's say that EKU and the OVC can't negotiate an exit and this goes all the way to a court ruling. If a court were to find in favor of EKU's argument that the OVC breached their contract by cancelling the fall season, that would potentially give every FCS school, every D2 school, every D3 school and every NAIA school whose conference cancelled or postponed their 2020 season a legal foothold to walk out of the door on their respective conferences without penalty.
Well I'm fairly sure that most courts will take the virus into huge consideration. And it might be interesting to see what actual government restrictions were in place against all parties involved. In regard to restrictions, some states, cities, etc., were more strict than others. Were fans even allowed by school policy? Lots of considerations here. Non of which were caused by the OVC. You would have to look at EKUs policies, and every other school's as well as all conf jurisdiction's policies and restrictions.

And I still am not convinced they were seriously damaged financially. Three FBS!? They might have walked away with 750K there. Maybe not. Maybe more. And I don't agree with the analogy. The OVC did not destroy their ability to play games, as evidenced by their actual schedule. The OVC only affected conf counting games. Not even potential non-conf games against conf mates. If I was a judge in this case, I would tell EKU to fork over their books for last few years and prove it. While they may have been damaged, it looks minimal by eyeballing it. Certainly not $1M worth.