COLLEGE FOOTBALL ACC attorneys asks judge to dismiss lawsuit filed by four Big East teams

UConn, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and WVU are seeking monetary damages.
ROCKVILLE, Conn. (AP) -- Attorneys for the Atlantic Coast Conference and Miami acknowledged Monday their clients have some business dealings in Connecticut, but say those contacts don't warrant being sued in the state over the ACC's expansion plans.
The attorneys asked Judge Samuel J. Sferrazza to dismiss on jurisdictional grounds the lawsuit filed by Connecticut and three other Big East football schools.
UConn, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia contend they spent millions on their football programs based on presumed loyalty from schools they had been aligned with. They are seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Accused of conspiracy
The schools accuse Miami and the ACC of participating in a conspiracy to weaken the Big East. Miami and Big East member Virginia Tech will join the ACC in 2004.
"The ACC has no employees, offices, bank accounts, telephones in Connecticut," ACC attorney Larry Sitton said.
Hugh Keefe, another attorney representing the ACC, argued the conference cannot be sued in Connecticut because it is an unincorporated voluntary association and not a partnership or individual. The so-called "long-arm law" which allows certain out-of-state concerns to be sued in Connecticut, has no provision for such an entity, he said.
But Jeffrey Mishkin, the lead counsel for the Big East plaintiffs, told the judge that since 1999 Miami has had more than 300 separate business dealings in Connecticut, including dozens of athletic games.
Mishkin also said Miami was tied to Connecticut because it signed, along with other Big East members, the agreement accepting UConn as a future football member of the Big East. As a condition of that agreement, UConn built a $90 million stadium and upgraded other related facilities, he said.
Business in Connecticut
In all, he said, Miami has done about $4 million in business over the past five years in Connecticut.
Miami attorney Eric Isicoff countered that any business conducted in Connecticut amounted to sporadic contacts.
The conference has two contracts with Bristol-based ESPN, Sitton acknowledged. Both were negotiated in North Carolina, where the ACC is based, and none of the televised games are in Connecticut, Sitton said.
"It's unrelated contact," Sitton argued. "If ESPN was the plaintiff it would be a whole different ball game."
The judge did not say when he would rule.