Response to USC Associate AD Steve Lopes

"LET'S CROWN A REAL CHAMPION!!!!!! MAKE THIS A NATIONAL MOVEMENT!" NCPA Poll

Mr. Steve Lopes
USC Senior Associate Athletic Director
Heritage Hall (HER)
3501 Watt Way Los Angeles, CA 90089-0602

Mr. Lopes:
This responds to your email sent February 10th, 2011 regarding the Kennedy Proposal. It’s apparent that I am making some noise and gaining traction with the BCS administrators because I’m starting to be addressed as Mr. Kennedy.

In your response, you lie. I have emails dating back to March 15, 2009 that indicate that USC was made aware of the Kennedy Proposal. This is important because the ESPN agreement was not finalized until July 9th, 2009. The Kennedy Proposal was not forwarded to you, it was sent directly to you. I called several times during June of 2009 to seek a response. If I had the phone records from Miriam’s Kitchen I would be able to prove it.

Mr. Monts testifies, “The general retort of BCS critics when this point is raised is that, if there were some other cooperative arrangement, usually some hypothetical “playoff”, then these harms to competitors could be avoided. That argument fails because it starts from the wrong baseline.” The BCS is an event that consists of five, two-team playoffs. The Kennedy Proposal is an expansion proposal for the BCS National Championship playoff.

According to Antitrust Enforcement and the Consumer, “For offenses committed on or after June 22, 2004, individual violators can be fined up to $1 million and sentenced to up to 10 years in federal prison for each offense, and corporations can be fined up to $100 million for each offense. Under some circumstances, the maximum fines can go even higher than the Sherman Act maximums to twice the gain or loss involved.”

By stating USC is committed to the current structure for post-season play when a less-restrictive alternative has been proposed is acknowledging that USC is violating the Nation’s Antitrust Laws.

Fight On!!!

See you in court Mr. Lopes,

Brandon E. Kennedy
Executive Director of the KP Coalition