Utah Valley University and the Western Athletic Conference have cleared up a dispute over a $1 million deposit that threatened to keep the Wolverines out of the league’s men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
As reported by The Associated Press, Utah Valley plans to leave the WAC for the Big West Conference at the end of this academic year and the two sides have been in court for weeks. The WAC said Tuesday that Utah Valley hadn’t complied with a judge’s order directing the school to place $1 million in escrow with the court, an amount equivalent to a disputed exit fee for leaving the conference.
The WAC was planning to release new brackets without Utah Valley if the deposit wasn’t made. That would have left the men’s tournament without its top seed. Utah Valley is the No. 4 seed in the women’s tournament, with both events starting Wednesday in Las Vegas.
The dispute was short-lived, as reported by the AP. The WAC issued another statement Tuesday night saying Utah Valley would be playing in both tournaments. The school said it has been talking with court officials about the logistics of submitting the escrow payment and the league’s threat was out of line.
“In short, the action threatened by the WAC today to bar UVU from the WAC basketball tournaments would be an overt violation of this Court’s Preliminary Injunction Order,” attorneys for Utah Valley wrote in court documents, per the AP report.
As it stands, the Utah Valley women begin tournament action today. The men open their tournament play Friday.
