BCS AND CONTRACT LAW

January 3, 2004

Comments

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.

One response to “BCS AND CONTRACT LAW”

bryan

January 3, 2004 at 8:31 pm

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.

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