Here's West Virginia's Lawsuit Against The Big East, Which Is "No Longer A Viable And Competitive Football Conference"

On Friday, West Virginia announced that they're heading to the Big 12, which was a poorly kept secret. So poorly kept that the Big East has been preparing a lawsuit to force them to honor the terms of their agreement: that departing schools must stay in the conference for 27 months before leaving. Today, WVU beat them to the punch, claiming it was the Big East that breached their contract with member schools.

The lawsuit, which can be found below, cites boring legal things like "unreasonable restraint on trade" and "failure to comply with fiduciary obligations," but it's really about this: the Big East is no longer what WVU thought it was signing on for back in 1991. Here's the killer statement:

"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."

Burn. In the way of news, the suit confirms that UConn, Louisville, Rutgers and Cincinnati have held discussions with other conferences about jumping ship.

MetroNews, which made available the lawsuit, opines that by filing suit before the Big East completed theirs, any case would be heard in Monongalia County, a more favorable venue. Mike Florio (he's a lawyer!) thinks the suit might be more about creating leverage and lowering the cost of any exit fee, like TCU's $5 million opt-out.

Here's the full lawsuit: