AD's Conference Realignment Gamble Saves Louisville $4M

Wires for Thursday edition.

Even without an invitation to join another conference in 2011, Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich took a huge gamble by giving a 27-month notice to Big East Conference officials that the Cardinals would leave.

Jurich's gamble paid off Wednesday, saving the school $4 million, when the American Athletic Conference, formerly the Big East, reached an agreement for Louisville to join the Atlantic Coast Conference on July 1, 2014.

Louisville agreed to pay $11 million to The American, instead of the $15 million the conference sought.

The university was able to negotiate a lower amount because Jurich, as required by the league's bylaws, informed then-Big East commissioner John Marinatto and University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft in October 2011 that the Cardinals would leave the league in 27 months, Marinatto said.

AGENTS: Two more people were charged with violating North Carolina's agent law by providing benefits to Tar Heels football players in 2010.

Willie James Barley Jr. and Michael Wayne Johnson Jr. are charged with helping Georgia-based agent Terry Watson try to sign Robert Quinn and Greg Little, both now in the NFL, in violation of the law.

Barley, 29, of North Chesterfield, Va., faces four charges of athlete agent inducement by providing Quinn with benefits of $1,525.74 for a trip the eventual NFL first-round draft pick took to Miami in May 2010.

BAYLOR: Coach Art Briles agreed to a new 10-year contract with the fourth-ranked Bears.

Briles is 41-30 at Baylor, which is 8-0 for the first time in school history. The Bears are fifth in the BCS standings.