An exit fee is what is known as "liquidated damages". Courts routinely review liquidated damages clauses for reasonableness. This is because liquidated damages are supposed to be a reasonable approximation of what actual damages would be in the event of a breach of contract. In the Maryland case, a court never made a ruling on whether or not the ACC's exit fee was reasonable, as both parties decided to settle before going to trial on the issue. A grant of rights is something different entirely. Parties can contractually agree to transfer ownership of certain rights. The schools agreed to transfer their broadcast right to the conference in exchange for a share of conference revenue; and the conference agreed to transfer those same rights to the TV networks in exchange for a future revenue stream. This is not something that courts will second guess without evidence of something like fraud. In regards to the Big 12 GoR, it's not just about what the schools and conference want to do, the TV networks (FOX and ESPN) are also parties to that, since those broadcast rights were sold to the networks. So lawsuit over the GoR would involve not just the Big 12, Texas, and Oklahoma, but ESPN and FOX as well. It would be messy and take years to litigate, by which time the GoR would have expired anyway. It's just not worth the headache for Texas and Oklahoma to try something like that, especially since I'm sure their lawyers have probably informed them that they would likely lose the case eventually. And I have to think ESPN has also told them not to challenge the GoR in court, as ESPN wouldn't want any of their media contracts being challenged in the future either. ** Edited by tarheelblue at 2/7/2023, 3:11:03 PM