Atlantic Coast Conference asks court to pause or dismiss Florida State’s lawsuit against league

The Atlantic Coast Conference asked a Florida court to pause Florida State’s lawsuit against the conference while the ACC’s claim against the school in North Carolina moves forward or dismiss the Seminoles’ case altogether, according to a filing submitted Friday.

The ACC’s response to Florida State’s complaint came at the deadline set by the court and a week after the school filed a motion for dismissal of the conference’s lawsuit in North Carolina, where the league office is located.

The first court appearance in either case is a hearing set for March 22 in Mecklenburg County Superior Court in North Carolina.

The ACC initially sued the Florida State Board of Trustees in North Carolina in late December, asking a court to uphold the grant of rights that binds conference members through their media rights as a valid and enforceable contract. The ACC filed its lawsuit without announcement the day before Florida State sued the conference.

Florida State is seeking a quick and easy path out of the conference instead of paying more than $500 million in exit fees and penalties to get out of a deal that runs through 2036. The school’s lawsuit, filed in Leon County Circuit Courts, claims the ACC has mismanaged its members’ media rights and is imposing “draconian” exit fees and penalties for withdrawing from the conference.

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In its latest filing, the ACC said Florida State is misunderstanding the transaction tied to the grant of rights.

“Florida State (twice) assigned its media rights for a specific term to the Conference for the purpose of entering into agreements with ESPN. The Conference thus controls those rights for that term. If Florida State wishes to regain control of the rights before the end of the term, it could attempt to repurchase them. But having to buy back a right which was assigned is not a penalty; it is simply a commercial possibility. Paying a fair price for rights that were previously transferred cannot be a ‘penalty’ under any reasonable definition of the term,” the ACC said.

Florida State amended its lawsuit in January, taking aim at former ACC Commissioner John Swofford and accusing him costing member schools millions of dollars by acting in the best interest of his son, who worked at television partner Raycom Sports.

The ACC’s motion for a stay or dismissal was focused on legal arguments and not meant to respond to Florida State’s latest claims, though it did make one reference to the accusation of “self-dealing” by Swofford.

“... Florida State is improperly using this Court to air decades-old insinuations (apparently solely from an old news article) about former ACC Commissioner Swofford and his son while simultaneously seeking an impermissible advisory opinion about decades-old contractual provisions that it may never invoke,” the ACC said.

The ACC says the Florida court doesn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case and the statute of limitations has run out on some of FSU’s complaints, which date back as much as a decade.

The ACC also says Florida State’s claims are not recognizable legal claims and the school is seeking an advisory opinion from the court, asking for a ruling based on FSU’s possible withdrawal from the league.

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