Chop Chat
Fansided

FSU Rivals: Miami being sued over canceled game is ridiculous

By Jason Parker

TALLAHASSEE OCTOBER 7: Defensive back Stanford Samuels III #8 of the Florida State Seminoles intercepts a pass intended for wide receiver Lawrence Cager #18 of the Miami Hurricanes during the second half of an NCAA football game at Doak S. Campbell Stadium on October 7, 2017 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by Butch Dill/Getty Images)
TALLAHASSEE OCTOBER 7: Defensive back Stanford Samuels III #8 of the Florida State Seminoles intercepts a pass intended for wide receiver Lawrence Cager #18 of the Miami Hurricanes during the second half of an NCAA football game at Doak S. Campbell Stadium on October 7, 2017 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by Butch Dill/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Miami officials are going to be heading to court after being sued by the team they were scheduled to play – before a natural disaster took place.

During the second Saturday of September last year, there was no college football played in the state of Florida. Schools like the Florida State Seminoles, Florida Gators and UCF Knights canceled games at home while the Miami Hurricanes and USF Bulls canceled road trips and the FIU Panthers moved their game to Alabama and FAU played their scheduled game at Wisconsin.

Why did this all take place? Well, there was this little thing called Hurricane Irma – a storm that, at its highest point, was a potentially catastrophic Category 5 storm – that was barreling down on the Caribbean and charting a course toward the Sunshine State, landing Sunday morning September 10th and proving that there are more important things than football.

Well, apparently not everyone feels that way. The team that Miami was schedule to play on the road, the Arkansas State Red Wolves, have decided to sue the Hurricanes for canceling the game scheduled on September 9th. You can find the complete copy of the lawsuit here, but some of the highlight are as follows:

  • ASU wants $650,000 that was the stipulated fee in their contract with Miami for canceling a game and not rescheduling it.
  • There was a stipulation in the contract that the game could be cancelled with no charge in the case of a catastrophe, including a hurricane, forcing the game to be impossible to be played.
  • Arkansas State’s argument is the game could have been played since it wasn’t in an affected area and they claim they tried to do everything to get Miami to the area for the game – including offering to move the game up to allow Miami to get home – and offered them hotels and areas to practice if they could not return to South Florida immediately.

Now, Miami said they didn’t want their players to be stranded if they couldn’t get back and wanted players to be able to be home with their families to help during and after the storm’s strike. It didn’t help their case when head coach Mark Richt said that the game could have been played as scheduled before explaining why it wasn’t.

Does Arkansas State have a legally great argument? Absolutely. The paperwork shows that they didn’t do anything wrong and Miami technically violated the terms with how they went about things and legally they will probably lose the case if it goes all the way through the judicial system.

Does Arkansas State look petty as hell by doing this? Absolutely. Look, I get that having a big name team come to Jonesboro was going to bring a lot of money and exposure to a school that hasn’t had many power programs come there – and when you are a smaller town, you need all the money you can (heck, Tallahassee wanted the Louisiana Monroe game reschedule to make up lost revenue.)

Next: Top 10 FSU Football Wins All-Time Over Florida and Miami

In the end, I can’t see this case going all the way through the judicial system. Either another game will be rescheduled between the schools (which ASU claims they wanted all along) or Miami will reach a settlement – and make sure that all future contracts have much more specific language to avoid this happening again.

Home/FSU Football