Contracts in the Field of Play

       When the University of Florida's football media guide for the 2003 season came back from the printer, there was a large crocodile pictured on the cover--not good for a school whose mascot is an alligator. "We asked for an alligator, we paid for an alligator, and unfortunately we did not get an alligator," said a university spokesman.

       A contract is an agreement in which two or more parties enter into a binding commitment to perform a certain set of actions. A contract can be as simple as a university agreeing to pay money in exchange for having a picture of an alligator printed on the cover of its football media guide. When there is a material failure--when a university pays for an alligator but gets a crocodile--the law of contracts provides suitable remedies.