Florida AG joins legal fight between FSU and ACC, seeking ESPN contract
Attorney General Ashley Moody wants action between ESPN and ACC.
The Florida State Seminoles have been studying their strategy to leave the Pacific Conference (ACC) for a long time after spending many hours negotiating the renewal of their franchise agreement through 2036. Under the current agreement, Florida State University lose $500 million in TV revenue, giving other Power 5 conferences to the top of the sport, if not much, most of the money.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has thrown her hat in the face of a lawsuit challenging FSU’s current GOR status, which holds the Seminoles, a decade-long process that has seen the ACC benefit from one of its most popular brands. .
One of the main obstacles to bringing a case to the ACC is that the existing contract will be tested in court. That’s because it’s kept under lock and key at ACC headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Access to the documents has been tightly controlled, and FSU lawyers say they have been analyzed in black and white under close scrutiny.
On Thursday, Moody filed a public records request with the ACC regarding the meeting with the ESPN contracts. and other agreements, amendments and documents important to FSU’s legal battle to leave the ACC.“
“A prestigious Florida university is facing more than $500 million in bankruptcy, and ACC is refusing to give up its contract at the center of this financial crisis,” Moody said. And these documents are being stored illegally in North Carolina. However, the State laws in North Carolina and Florida state that these contracts are public records and must be turned over immediately. “Today, I am working to ensure that FSU and the public can review these agreements.“
Moody requested, among other things, a copy an executive copy of the Multimedia Agreement between ACC and ESPN, a copy of the 2014 Amended Multimedia Agreement and an executive copy of the ACC Copyright Agreement.
This request is not related to a separate antitrust investigation that Moody launched in December into the College Football Playoff Committee and Florida State’s historic elimination from the playoffs that began on January 1..
