The Atlantic Coast Conference has requested for a Florida court to temporarily halt Florida State’s lawsuit against the conference. This is until the ACC’s own claim against the university in North Carolina progresses or the Seminoles’ case is completely dismissed. The request was submitted on Friday.

The ACC’s reply to Florida State’s grievance was submitted before the court’s deadline and seven days after the university requested for the conference’s lawsuit in North Carolina to be dismissed. This is where the league’s headquarters are situated.

The initial court hearing for both cases is scheduled for March 22 at the Mecklenburg County Superior Court in North Carolina.

The ACC filed a lawsuit against the Florida State Board of Trustees in North Carolina in late December. The lawsuit aims to uphold the grant of rights, which legally binds conference members through their media rights as a valid and enforceable contract. The ACC chose to file the lawsuit without prior announcement, one day before Florida State also sued the conference.

Florida State is attempting to find a swift and effortless way to leave the conference, rather than paying over $500 million in exit fees and penalties to terminate their agreement, which is set to expire in 2036. The university’s legal action, submitted to the Leon County Circuit Courts, alleges that the ACC has mishandled its members’ media rights and is enforcing harsh exit fees and penalties for leaving the conference.

The ACC stated in its most recent submission that Florida State has misinterpreted the terms of the grant of rights agreement.

“Twice, Florida State gave the Conference the rights to its media for a set period of time in order to make agreements with ESPN. Therefore, the Conference now has control over those rights for that duration. If Florida State wants to take back control of the rights before the end of the term, it can try to buy them back. However, this is not considered a penalty, but rather a potential commercial transaction. According to the ACC, paying a fair price for rights that were previously transferred cannot be seen as a ‘penalty’ by any reasonable definition of the word.”

In January, Florida State updated its legal complaint to target former ACC Commissioner John Swofford. The university alleges that he caused member schools to lose millions of dollars by prioritizing the interests of his son, who was employed at their broadcasting partner, Raycom Sports.

The motion filed by the ACC was primarily based on legal arguments and was not intended to address Florida State’s recent claims. However, it did briefly mention the accusation of “self-dealing” against Swofford.

The ACC stated that Florida State is misusing the court to bring up old accusations (reportedly from a single news article) about former ACC Commissioner Swofford and his son. They are also attempting to obtain an unauthorized opinion on contractual terms from many years ago which they may never actually use.

According to the ACC, the Florida court lacks jurisdiction to handle the case and some of FSU’s complaints, which date back as far as ten years, are no longer within the statute of limitations.

The ACC argues that Florida State’s assertions are not valid legal claims and the university is requesting a court’s advisory decision regarding the potential withdrawal from the league.

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The AP college football can be found at the following links: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll.

Source: wral.com