The ACC will provide 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 public records lawsuit against the ACC over the availability of the television contract, which is kept at ACC headquarters in North Carolina and is only allowed to be viewed in person. TV contracts include sensitive trade secrets and previously have not been made available as public records from schools; the conference will be able to redact exempt or confidential information.
“Floridians will finally get to see what the Atlantic Coast Conference is hiding in its effort to keep Florida State University from leaving the conference,” the AG’s office said in a release. “Attorney General Ashley Moody just secured an agreement from the ACC’s attorneys to provide secretive media rights contracts at the center of the legal battle. … The contracts are at the heart of legal wrangling between FSU and the ACC over the school’s efforts to leave the conference and any fines or penalties associated with the departure.”
It’s unclear how much sensitive information will be redacted from a public release of the ACC contracts. It’s also theoretically possible this could open the door for the TV contracts of other conferences that include public Florida universities, like the SEC and Big 12, to be made public. When asked whether it would take the same step with other conferences, the attorney general’s office told The Athletic, “Our case pertains to the ACC.”
Florida State sued the ACC in December over the enforceability of the league’s grant of rights, which is a separate agreement from the television deal, though its timeline aligns with the TV deal. The grant of rights gives the ACC the broadcast rights to ACC home games through 2036. FSU lawyers have estimated it could cost more than $500 million to buy those rights back and leave the conference. Clemson has also sued the ACC over the grant of rights, arguing that it should not apply whenever a school leaves the conference.
Four different lawsuits about the GOR across three states (North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina) remain ongoing with no resolution expected anytime soon. Moody’s office is not involved in those proceedings, but its public saber-rattling is an attempt to support the Seminoles and put pressure on the ACC.
The television deal is at the heart of the legal battle. Last week, a Florida judge approved terms agreed 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 at the end of litigation.
Florida State and Clemson have taken legal action against the ACC as they try to find a way out of the conference and into a more lucrative one. Big Ten and SEC schools will soon makes tens of millions more per year than ACC schools, through TV contracts and payouts from the College Football Playoff.
The six ACC documents to be released are as follows:
- 2010 ACC Multi-Media Agreement
- 2012 Amendment and Extension Agreement
- 2014 Second Amendment to Multi-Media Agreement
- 2016 Amended and Restated ACC-ESPN Multi-Media Agreement
- ACC-ESPN Network Agreement (2016)
- Letter Amendment to Amended and Restated Multi-Media Agreement (Aug. 10, 2021)
(Photo: Omar Rawlings / Getty Images)
