HARTFORD, Conn. -- While Big East officials are close to reshaping the conference in response to the defections of football powers Miami and Virginia Tech, the legal dispute that resulted from the departures is still ongoing.

A Connecticut judge will hear arguments Monday from the ACC and Miami on whether to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds. The hearing will include sworn depositions taken over the last several weeks from Miami athletic director Paul Dee and ACC commissioner John Swofford.

"We are as adamant as ever that both Miami and the ACC broke the law and violated their responsibilities to the four schools that are suing," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.

The lawsuit, filed June 6 in a Connecticut court, contends Rutgers, West Virginia, Pittsburgh and Connecticut have spent millions on their football programs based on presumed loyalty from schools with which they had been aligned. The defendants are accused of participating in a conspiracy intended to weaken the Big East.

The original lawsuit listed Boston College as a defendant and Virginia Tech as a plaintiff. When the ACC formally invited only the Hokies and the Hurricanes this summer, the lawsuit was amended. Tech is no longer a plaintiff; Boston College was dropped as a defendant.

Connecticut will join the Big East in 2004 and in preparation built a $90 million stadium in the its upgrade to Division I-A football. Other schools spent millions in upgrades as well.

"We have an obligation to reduce the harm as much as possible," Blumenthal said. "What the damages ultimately would be we can't quantify right now, but certainly we are pursuing our rights as vigorously and relentlessly as possible."

The schools are seeking to recover what they say will be losses in ticket sales and broadcasting fees, and the cash value of diminished recruiting power and scarred relationships with donors.

But before the suit can even address the question of fractured loyalties, Rockville Superior Court Judge Samuel J. Sferrazza must decide whether Miami and the ACC can even be sued in Connecticut.

"The ACC just doesn't have any business with entities in Connecticut," said Steven Errante, the ACC's New Haven-based attorney. "You need enough contacts to say its fair to makes someone from another state to defend themselves in this state."

Errante said the lawsuit fails to meet the statute known as the "long-arm" law, which allows a business to be sued by another state if it does a lot of business with that state. Errante said he will also argue that the conference is not a business.

"The ACC is an unincorporated, not-for-profit association," Errante said. "We feel as confident as we ever did."

But Blumenthal contends the plaintiffs will be able to show, through depositions from Swofford, Dee and others, that there are plenty of contacts between the ACC, Miami and Connecticut. He cited games, recruiting, fund-raising, and even television contracts with the Bristol-based ESPN as examples.

"There's a variety of activities that demonstrate they had a reasonable expectation that they could be sued in Connecticut," Blumenthal said.

Legal analysts say the precedent-setting lawsuit still has a long way to go and ultimately may end up with an out-of-court settlement, but it has caught the attention of conferences around the country.

"The conferences will be watching to see how it all shakes out," Jim McKeown, a sports industry lawyer for the Minnesota-based Foley & Lardner law firm. "It will affect what other conferences do only if the Big East prevails. I think that the most important issue is what's in the contract and the league's agreement in terms of withdrawal. It may cause conferences to review again the procedure in their conference."

Big East officials can't afford to wait for the outcome of the legal issues. They've been busy lining up potential new members to flesh out the conference next year. A source close to expansion plans told The Associated Press that Conference USA teams Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville and Marquette will be invited before the year is out.

Commissioner Mike Tranghese wouldn't comment on specifics of the expansion but said the final decision will likely come during a Big East presidents meeting in November in Philadelphia.

"The good thing is we've got a lot people working hard together," Tranghese said. "We'll reshape ourselves in football and in basketball. We're already good and we're about to become better."