ESPN Deals Prompt Inquiry
ACC officials will be questioned as the Department of Justice studies ESPN's contracts with college conferences
By ROBBI PICKERAL, Staff Writer, Raleigh News Observer    

The Department of Justice wants to interview Atlantic Coast Conference officials as part of an inquiry into whether ESPN's football and basketball contracts with college leagues violate antitrust laws.

"The Department of Justice has contacted me about asking the ACC about some questions relating to ESPN," said Erik Albright, an ACC attorney who added that no time had been set for the talks.

Albright declined further comment on the matter, and the Justice Department's antitrust division had no comment Monday.

The New York Times, citing two unidentified television industry executives, reported that an inquiry might examine ESPN's practice of "warehousing" -- televising only a portion of the games it has the rights to broadcast, then restricting the leagues from making deals with other television entities.

The Times reported that the inquiry also could look into how ESPN uses football and basketball as leverage with conferences, and how it schedules football games at nontraditional times such as Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights to give colleges national exposure for recruiting.

ESPN officials could not be reached.

ABC and ESPN recently signed a seven-year football television contract, worth about $260 million, with the ACC. Under that deal, ABC and ESPN leave open two ACC games each weekend to be syndicated regionally by Raycom and Jefferson-Pilot, which have a separate deal with the league.

ESPN also holds the football rights to the Big East, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences. The cable network holds the basketball rights to the Big East, Big 12 and Big Ten. Raycom and Jefferson Pilot have the broadcast rights to ACC basketball.

Mark Conrad, an associate professor of legal and ethical studies at Fordham University, said it's "pretty rare" that the Justice Department would look into sports contracts on such a large scale. There have been cases involving individual teams, he said, and antitrust cases involving sports broadcasting. "But they've mostly been settled out of court, so this is an unsettled topic," said Conrad, who specializes in sports and entertainment law.

"These investigations take months and months,'' Conrad added. "It probably won't end quickly."

Twenty years ago, the Supreme Court ended the NCAA's control over the market for televising college football.

The court ruled that the NCAA had, in effect, become a "classic cartel." The 7-2 decision was the result of an antitrust suit filed by the University of Georgia and the University of Oklahoma in 1981.

(The New York Times contributed to this report.)