VERNON, Conn. -- For the second time in four months, a state judge has removed the Atlantic Coast Conference as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by four Big East football schools over the departure of Miami and Boston College for the ACC.

Superior Court Judge Samuel Sferrazza ruled Monday that the ACC did not have sufficient ties to Connecticut to be sued here.

Attorneys for Boston College and members of the ACC's governing body asked that the cases against them also be dismissed. Judge Samuel Sferrazza heard arguments on that request but did not issue a ruling.

Connecticut, Rutgers, Pittsburgh and West Virginia argue that the ACC, Miami and Boston College conspired to weaken the Big East.

Sferrazza originally dismissed the case against the ACC in October, prompting Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to refile the lawsuit adding as defendants individual directors of the ACC. The new lawsuit also added Boston College and its athletic director, Eugene DeFilippo.

Attorneys argued Monday that Blumenthal's suit against ACC members was a veiled effort to get the judge to reconsider the case.

"He's trying to get in the back door after he was told he couldn't get in the front door," Erik Albright, an attorney for the ACC, said.

The suit names ACC Commissioner John Swofford, ACC President Carolyn Callahan, ACC Vice President Donn Ward and ACC Treasurer Cecil Huey. Callahan, Ward and Huey are professors who serve rotating terms on the board.

Sferrazza has already said Miami can be sued because, as a member of the Big East, it shared in revenues from games in Connecticut. Blumenthal said that holds true for Boston College.

James Smeallie, an attorney for BC, said there are no specific allegations that warrant a case against that school.