ValpoTX wrote:The exit fee would not be higher if the postseason ban rule wasn't in play. The conference already upped their exit fee from $100k to $500k when Butler left the conference on short notice. It is normal to take this approach. I can think of one school that left their conference with a 1-2 year notice during this realignment period, and their athletes played what amounted to lame duck seasons because of it. Anyone that tries to make the argument that it is unethical not to tell your conference that you are leaving as soon as you know about it, has no clue regarding college athletics.
The exit fee just amounts to a 'bitter ex's revenge' type of requirement by a conference, and is not used to compensate anything that damages the league. The league compensates with scheduling gaps just fine without any financial issues.
Of course the exit fee would be higher without the postseason ban. Why do you think conferences impose an exit fee? It's to discourage schools from leaving. Why do you think they impose a post-season ban on schools that are leaving? It's to discourage schools from leaving. You might say "no, it's because they don't want to send teams that are leaving on to represent the conference." Same thing. It raises the cost of leaving. The cost of changing leagues is the total cost of changing leagues. Don't want to cheat your athletes? Offer to pay an additional $30,000 or $50,000 or whatever is needed in exit fees for the right to participate in the conference tournament and represent the conference in the NCAAs. The Horizon's cheap and easily bought.
I think of conference exit fees less a bitter ex's revenge than as a pre-nup. You agreed to it, live with it. I don't know that Valpo's behavior is unethical, but someone use the phrase that others (meaning me) are being "holier than thou." No, it's the Valpo fans who started saying, "well, of course we're leaving, we just have to be duplicitous about it because the Horizon League has this "petty" rule. Yeah, rules always seem "petty" when you no longer want to live by them.
Valpo's making the move up. Good for Valpo. But at least own up to it. You're like the guy who's planning to break up with his mate for a better looking woman, but first wants one more night of great sex, then he'll tell her.