Q. What interests most people?
A. Money.
Q. Which team most recently interested most people?
A. Indiana University.
Q. What kinds of legal documents create interest?
A. Contracts.
Q. Ball State is supposed to host I.U. this coming basketball season, but will that game actually take place?
A. TBA, but it's blatantly obvious.
All three of these answers can be found throughout this column a bit more in depth.
After I.U.'s recent success on the hardwood and personal lack of column ideas, I decided to take a gander at the contract between the two Indiana schools. Most things on the contract look fairly normal.
It begins by stating the day which the contract was created and signed, that being Sept.19, 2000. It then goes on to state what the contract is for. In this case: two games of basketball, one to be played at each location.
OK. So that part is a bit bland, but after the obvious is stated, things do get interesting.
The second section of the contract is one titled "consideration."
This would be the section that sets the price each school is to pay the other. When Ball State played in Assembly Hall this past season, I.U. paid Ball State $25,000. When Indiana comes to Worthen Arena in either November or December of 2002, Ball State will pay the Hoosiers $25,000. That part is simple. A cool 25 Gs sounds good to me.
The next section on the contract is "rules."
Another bland section, this states that each game, here and there, will be played under the rules of the Mid-American Conference, The Big Ten Conference and the NCAA.
The fourth section is "officials." This raised an eyebrow because it's something many don't consider. Who gets the advantage in regard to the officiating? Well, this states, "The officials for the games will be assigned as follows: Crossover crew or mutually agreeable between head coaches." That makes the crew on the court a combination of MAC and Big 10 conference officials, which seems fair.
Next comes "ticket allocation," which in short says that I.U. to give Ball State 100 complimentary tickets for the game in Bloomington and on the same token, Ball State is to give the Hoosiers 100 tickets for the Muncie game. Complimentary tickets are those tickets that give player guests, coach guests, administrators an student body presidents a place to sit. That section also states that the home team has the right to set the price of tickets.
Sections six and seven are "radio" and "television" which discuss the rights to broadcast -- boring stuff that doesn't matter to me. The real meat, the juicy middle of our steak, or, in this case, our contract, is coming. I promise.
Section eight is "force majeure," which basically states that either team can back out of a game in the event of a natural disaster such as "fire, flood, earthquake, war, confiscation, by order of government, military or public authority..."
So as long as the University Police Department doesn't order the game canceled or Ball State doesn't go to war, it looks like we don't have to worry about that section.
But, as promised, the meat of the contract can be found in section nine: "termination and damages."
We'll review this in its entirety.
"This contract may be terminated under the following conditions: by mutual consent of both parties, in writing. By either party if that party has formally dropped NCAA participation in the sport identified in this contract. If either party breaches this contract, the party causing the breach shall pay to the other party a liquidated sum of $30,000 which shall represent liquidated damages to the non-breaching party."
Layman's terms: If the nation's national championship runner-up, I.U., chooses not to take the risk of losing to a mid-major school by playing on the road, it only has to dish out $30,000.
To the common college student scrounging around for laundry money, that's a lot. For an institution such as I.U., that's like asking the Hoosiers to donate a couple packs of saltine crackers for compensation.
So, it sounds to me like the answer to that final question at the beginning of this column is pretty simple.
Understand one thing first: For I.U., losing to Ball State is embarrassing. After all the whining about it, and all the excuses about it, it would be embarrassing. I.U. and its fans consider Ball State out of its league. That was proven to me when the two teams faced off in early December.
If $30,000 is all it will take for the Hoosiers to dodge the risk of losing (being embarrassed) on the road to Ball State then, chances are, the Ball State athletic department may be looking at a surplus of $30,000 in next fall's budget.
Write to Greg at gmfallon@bsu.edu
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
