The ACC will submit its ESPN television agreement to the Florida Attorney General’s Office as a public record by Aug. 1, Attorney General Ashley Moody announced Wednesday.
In April, Moody filed a lawsuit against the ACC over the availability of the television contract, which is kept at the ACC headquarters in North Carolina and is only available for in-person viewing. Television contracts contain sensitive trade secrets and have not previously been made available as public documents by schools; the conference can redact exempt or confidential information.
“Floridians are finally getting to see what the Atlantic Coast Conference is hiding in its attempt to keep Florida State University from leaving the conference,” the attorney general’s office said in a news release. “Attorney General Ashley Moody has just entered into an agreement with ACC attorneys to provide undisclosed media rights contracts at the center of the legal battle. … The contracts are at the heart of a legal tug-of-war between FSU and the ACC over the school’s efforts to leave the conference and any potential fines or penalties associated with its departure.”
It’s unclear how much sensitive information would be left out of a public release of the ACC contracts. It’s also theoretically possible that this could open the door for the TV contracts of other conferences, including Florida’s public universities like the SEC and Big 12, to be made public. When asked if the attorney general’s office would take the same step with other conferences, it said The Athletics“Our case concerns the ACC.”
Florida State sued the ACC in December over the enforceability of the league’s rights award, which is a separate agreement from the television deal, though its timeline aligns with the TV deal. The rights award gives the ACC the rights to broadcast ACC home games through 2036. Attorneys for FSU have estimated it could cost more than $500 million to buy back those rights and leave the conference. Clemson also sued the ACC over the rights award, arguing that it should not apply when a school leaves the conference.
Four separate lawsuits over the GOR in three states (North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina) are still ongoing, with no resolution expected. Moody’s office is not involved in those proceedings, but the public saber-rattling is an attempt to support the Seminoles and put pressure on the ACC.
The television deal is at the center of the legal battle. Last week, a Florida judge approved terms agreed to by both sides to provide an unredacted copy of the six documents to FSU, but the protective order restricts the disclosure of confidential and sensitive information during legal proceedings. Copies of those documents must be destroyed within 60 days of the conclusion of the lawsuit.
Florida State and Clemson have filed legal action against the ACC in an attempt to find a way out of the conference and become a more lucrative one. Big Ten and SEC schools will soon earn tens of millions more per year than ACC schools, through television contracts and College Football Playoff payouts.
The six ACC documents to be released are as follows:
- 2010 ACC Multimedia Agreement
- Amendment and Extension Agreement 2012
- Second Amendment to the Multimedia Agreement of 2014
- 2016 Amended and Restated ACC-ESPN Multimedia Agreement
- ACC-ESPN Network Agreement (2016)
- Letter of amendment to the amended and restated multimedia agreement (August 10, 2021)
“The ACC respects the open records laws of the states where we have members; however, as a private, nonprofit organization founded and operated by public and private universities across the country, we do not believe our own records are subject to those laws,” the ACC said in a statement Wednesday. “Both parties, while fully preserving their legal positions, have reached a resolution that includes the voluntary production of certain redacted documents by the ACC, and the Attorney General subsequently dismissing the lawsuit. The ACC will not provide portions of documents that contain trade secrets, which has been its consistent position.”
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