Attorney General Ashley Moody wants the contracts between ESPN and the ACC.
The Florida State Seminoles have been working on an exit strategy from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for quite some time now after spending countless hours negotiating to restructure their Grant of Rights deal that extends into 2036. As the current contract sits, Florida State University will lose around $500 million in television revenue, giving the other Power 5 conferences a leg up in a sport increasingly dictated by money, if not entirely.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has thrown her hat in the ring amidst an ongoing lawsuit where FSU challenged the validity of the current GOR that handcuffs the Seminoles to a multi-decade deal in which the ACC solely benefits from one of their most prominent brands.
One of the significant hurdles in putting together a case against the ACC is the current rendition of the contract, which would be tested in court, as it has been kept under lock and key at the ACC Headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina. Access to the documents has reportedly been tightly regulated, causing lawyers representing FSU to dissect the black and white under close supervision.
On Thursday, Moody sent a public records request to the ACC regarding the conference’s “‘ESPN Agreement’ and several other agreements, amendments, and documents crucial to FSU’s legal battle to leave the ACC.”
“One of Florida’s top universities is facing the possibility of forfeiting more than half a billion dollars, and the ACC is refusing to hand over the agreements at the center of this astronomical financial penalty,” Moody said. “They are unlawfully keeping these documents locked away in North Carolina. However, North Carolina and Florida state laws are clear that these agreements are public records and must be handed over immediately. Today, I am taking action to ensure FSU and the public are able to review these agreements.”
Among other things, Moody is requesting an executed copy of the Multi-Media Agreement between the ACC and ESPN, an executed copy of the 2014 Amended Multi-Media Agreement, and an executed copy of the ACC Grant of Rights Agreement.
This request is not associated with a separate anti-trust investigation that Moody filed in December regarding the College Football Playoff Committee’s historic exclusion of Florida State from the playoffs, which began on January 1.
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