File this in the “This Was Still Going On?” folder.
In April 2013, just four months after Boise State decided against moving from the Mountain West to the then-Big East, the university filed a lawsuit against the soon-to-be American Athletic Conference in an attempt to get out from under the $5 million penalty for backing out on the league. The Big East/AAC subsequently filed a countersuit.
Friday, however, the legal machinations the two had been going through for well over a year have come to an end. In a very short press release, it was announced that “Boise State University and the American Athletic Conference... have agreed through mediation to resolve the litigation between them. All claims between the parties will be dismissed.”
And, with that, our long national nightmare is over.
The development, incidentally, comes exactly six weeks after reports surfaced that the two sides would be going into mediation over the issue of exit fees and penalties.
UPDATED 4:44 p.m. ET: Dave Southorn of the Idaho Statesman tweeted that “Boise State and the AAC dropped suits after BSU agreed to negotiated exit fee of $2.3M. AAC got $1.6M this week and $140K/yr next 5 yrs.” He then added that "[p]er BSU, the combined $4.1M in exits from Big East/West covered by $3M from MtnWest and $1.1M from national TV bonuses.”