Maryland filed a counter-suit against the ACC after alleged misconduct by the conference.
The Big Ten's wanted to steal away ACC schools for awhile. This you know. They took Maryland in late 2012 and then we upgraded our situation by inviting Louisville, so "awesome," right? The ACC's also been withholding payments to the Twerps for awhile and demanding their exit fee, which is about $52 million. I'll avoid boring you with all of the legal details, since Testudo Times actually covers them nicely over there (from a Maryland slant, obviously). Included in the counter-suit, though, was this major nugget (and the focus of our article here):
Per Maryland state's attorney's office: claiming the ACC tried to recruit two Big Ten universities to leave the Big Ten and join the ACC.
— ESPN ACC (@ESPN_ACC) January 14, 2014
Good on you guys! Obviously tired of hearing how Jim Delany and the Big Ten were going to poach its schools, the ACC decided to be proactive and try to grab schools from that conference. So who'd you send on the pitch?! Florida State, right? And maybe Duke, for basketball? I mean, if Sterling Cooper & Partners wanted a big win, they'd bring in the big guns -- Don, Peggy, Pete-- so the ACC would certainly think along the same lines, right?
AG's office claims Wake Forest and Pitt were the recruiters on behalf of the ACC. Reached out to ACC officials for comment.
— ESPN ACC (@ESPN_ACC) January 14, 2014
YOU SENT BOB BENSON?!
via big.assets.huffingtonpost.com
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Now, obviously the ACC needs some lessons in aspirational marketing. If you're trying to sell a lifestyle change to someone, you need to show them that how awesome they can have it in your neck of the woods. So you don't send Pittsburgh and Wake Forest -- the Big Ten schools have that already. You send Florida State and Duke (or Clemson, I suppose) to show them what they want to be.
So when Pitt called Penn State (confirmed) and Wake Forest called Vanderbilt (assumed) SUNJ/Northwestern (assumed) you can bet they were either laughed at or simply ignored. When you're trying to win Chevrolet, you send Draper. You don't send Bob Benson and Ginsberg. The ACC sent Benson and Ginsberg.
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Personally, I don't think this should help Maryland's counter-suit case, but I'm no lawyer. Go read a more informed take on the whole situation over at USA Today and come to your own conclusions, however.
