Florida State files appeal of ACC lawsuit to North Carolina Supreme Court
Florida State filed a petition in the North Carolina Supreme Court late Friday to appeal its initial loss in the courtroom against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The Florida State Board of Trustees’ petition comes after the North Carolina Business Court ruled in favor of the ACC last month, allowing the state to retain jurisdiction over the dispute. The Tampa Bay Times first reported Monday of the Seminoles’ decision to file a petition in North Carolina Supreme Court.
Along with denying FSU’s appeal of the venue of the lawsuit, the North Carolina Business Court also denied the school’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In Friday night’s 59-page filing, Florida State asked the state’s Supreme Court to review the initial decision and “whether the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction due to the ACC’s lack of standing when it filed the initial complaint.”
FSU’s filing argued the ACC didn’t follow voting protocols when it sued the institution in the state of North Carolina. Another point argued by FSU is, yet again, that the institution believes the correct venue for this lawsuit is Florida and not North Carolina.
“In other words, the only subject matter of this dispute (according to the ACC) is FSU’s intellectual property rights (FSU Media Rights) to all of FSU’s home games played in Tallahassee and broadcast from Tallahassee using FSU facilities in Tallahassee for the next twelve years after FSU leaves the ACC,” the petition states. “What could possibly be more Florida-centric?”
FSU went a step further, too, making the case that the “ACC had long planned behind the back of FSU to sue FSU, and been laying-in-wait for the opportune time to spring its hip pocket complaint on the FSU Board in Mecklenburg County, all for strategic advantage.”
What comes next for Florida State?
Florida State has been battling with its conference for months, starting back in 2023 and highlighted by a heated Board of Trustees meeting in August. The debate reached a new pitch in December when the initial lawsuits were filed. Clemson has since launched its own legal battle with the ACC.
Friday’s filing also stated the FSU Board’s appeal on personal jurisdiction and sovereign immunity is on deck for consideration by the North Carolina Supreme Court in the “coming months.” The two sides are battling in court over the ACC’s Grant of Rights, which Florida State is trying to get out of to leave the conference. FSU believes that it should be allowed to leave the ACC without penalty, despite agreeing to the grant of rights in 2013.
A grant of rights agreement gives conferences the right to broadcast all member schools’ home games for the duration of the media rights deal. In the ACC’s case, the GOR binds the league, schools and broadcast partners until the rights deal with ESPN expires in 2036. The ACC’s current TV contract with ESPN reportedly contains a unilateral option for the TV network in 2027 that must be exercised by February 2025 to extend the deal to 2036.
Settlement talks have always been on the radar. According to On3’s Andy Staples, a possible buyout number sits somewhere between $150 million and a $572 ceiling.
“It’s not a matter of if we leave [the ACC], in my opinion. It’s a matter of who and when we leave,” Board of Trustees member and former FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford said in August.