Some of you may have seen this on the the Memphis forums… Apparently it’s built into the contract between the schools to make them stay together for 5 years. Originally teh football schools were ready to leave, but decided to stay because of the predicament the basketball schools would have been left with. They would not have had enough bball schools to get an automatic bid for a new conference and apparently the teams need to be together for 5 years to qualify as well.
So, they expanded in both directions and setup the contract with a poison pill if you leave before the 5 years. That way they can split into two conferences without either side being significantly hurt. After 5 years, I believe there are NO penalties.
Someone may want to look up the link over there… thought it would be interesting conversation…