ACC to hand over ESPN contracts to Florida AG's office

Nearly a week after a protective order directed the ACC to give Florida State copies of ESPN contracts and related documents, the Florida Attorney General’s office scored the same win.

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody released a statement Wednesday announcing she had secured an agreement from the ACC’s attorneys to provide media rights contracts at the center of the legal battle. The ACC houses its grant of rights at the league office in Charlotte, where schools must go to read the document.

The agreement calls for the ACC’s 2010 multimedia rights agreement, a 2012 amendment and extension, a second amendment from 2014, a 2016 restated and amended deal, the ACC Network contract from 2016 and an August 2021 letter amendment to the current (2016) deal.

It’s a similar agreement that Florida State won access to last week, however, the protective order restricts the disclosure of confidential and sensitive information during legal proceedings. Copies of documents obtained by Florida State in its suit against the ACC must be destroyed within 60 days at the end of litigation.

Under the agreement, the ACC has agreed to produce all documents no later than Aug. 1.

“Our office’s legal action has resulted in an agreement from the ACC to produce secret media contracts that are at the heart of the legal wrangling between FSU and the ACC,” Moody said in a statement. “The conference refused to provide media contracts that detail the impact to FSU if it departs the conference, but now they are rightfully handing over these public records. We will continue to fight for transparency.”

TV contracts have historically been kept private and include sensitive trade secrets. The ACC will have the right to redact exempt or confidential information. With the agreement, a source indicated to On3 the expectation is the suit will be dismissed. A hearing had previously been scheduled for next week in Leon County.

The release went on to say Moody took legal action, “demanding the conference make the contracts public in accordance with Florida’s Public Records Act.”

The Florida Attorney General’s suit started in April when Moody filed against the ACC. It’s not the only ongoing lawsuit against the league, though. There are four other ongoing suits: the ACC vs. Clemson; the ACC vs. Florida State; Clemson vs. the ACC; Florida State vs. the ACC.

“The ACC respects the public records laws of states where we have members; however, as a private nonprofit association formed and operated by public and private universities from across the country, we do not believe that our own records are subject to those laws,” the ACC said in a statement to On3. “Both parties, while fully preserving their legal positions, have reached a solution which will include the voluntary production of certain redacted documents by the ACC, and the Attorney General then dismissing its lawsuit. The ACC will not be providing any portions of documents containing trade secrets which has been its consistent position.”

Florida State and Clemson focused on options to leave ACC

Many of these lawsuits have been centered around landing access to the ACC’s contracts with ESPN. Florida State and Clemson argued the league’s contracts are invalid, while Mody argued the agreements are subject to Florida public records laws.

At the root of Florida State and Clemson’s courtroom battles is the ACC’s Grant of Rights. The schools believe they should be allowed to leave the ACC without penalty, despite agreeing to the grant of rights in 2013.

Florida State’s attorneys previously estimated it could cost upwards of $500 million to buy out its rights back and leave the ACC.  

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.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.