I hope something like this did not happen as the members of the Big Ten Board are supposed to be highly intelligent, well educated and surely very experienced people. Without looking them all up, it would not surprise to find a majority are PhDs and some are attorneys themselves. I cant imagine the Board is not attended by one or more active “house council” attorneys at every meeting. Special K is an attorney as well.
This was the single biggest ‘vote’ in Big Ten history certainly. With billions of dollars and 70% of the combined revenues of all 14 schools being killed summarily. Thousands of jobs, thousands of athletes, contracts with opponents in and out of the league across multiple sports, vendors, staff, coaches, TV networks, bowl sponsors, media, apparel companies, etc etc. This is a massive mess if the Big Ten did all this without the basic common sense and logic to follow elementary laws and rules with regard to meetings and process.
The theory that maybe Board members failed to talk to their own school regents, attorneys, fiscal and medical and other advisors would explain some of this but it just seems unfathomable that such basic ignorance could be present.
If this happened (I hope not), I would hate to be those members and or their legal advisers. A massive scandal would result and is potentially ruinous to the conference. They better act fast and try to save as much of the conference obligations for fall sports as possible. The breach of contract with athletes (all schools and sports) pales in comparison to millions to bowls, networks, and potentially all 14 schools. I mentioned bankruptcy before. It is possible.
