Florida Supreme Court denies ACC request to pause FSU lawsuit
The Atlantic Coast Conference will get no help from the Florida Supreme Court in its quest to stop FSU’s lawsuit against the conference from moving forward in a Leon County Circuit Court.
The ACC has been asking the courts in Florida for months to pause Florida State’s lawsuit and instead let the conference’s complaints against FSU and Clemson in the state of North Carolina determine the fate of their protracted legal battle.
But Circuit Court Judge John C. Cooper ruled against the ACC last summer, then the 1st District Court of Appeal upheld Cooper’s ruling in November.
On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court confirmed it had declined to “accept jurisdiction” and that the ACC’s petition for review was denied. That means Florida State’s lawsuit will proceed in Circuit Court.
“There is no Hail Mary available to the petitioners,” Paul Flemming, the Florida Supreme Court’s director of public information, told Warchant on Thursday. “The Supreme Court’s order says no motion for rehearing will be entertained.”
Florida State filed its suit against the ACC in December 2023, seeking an opportunity to exit the conference and retain its media rights without having to pay the conference hundreds of millions of dollars in exit fees and penalties.
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The ACC is suing FSU and Clemson in North Carolina for breach of contract and other claims, and Clemson is pursuing its own lawsuit against the ACC in South Carolina.
Even while the Supreme Court has been considering the ACC’s request, the case in Judge Cooper’s court has been moving along, albeit slowly.
Five former FSU officials were scheduled to give depositions to ACC attorneys earlier this month, and just last week, the university and conference jointly asked Cooper for a 15-day delay in the court’s discovery schedule.
“The Parties have been diligently engaged and cooperating in discovery as ordered by the Court, including the exchange of documents, written discovery, setting of depositions, and related discovery matters,” the request stated. “However, the Parties represent that they will require an additional 15 days within which to complete the discovery the Court ordered on the Plaintiff’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment.”
The request was signed by attorneys representing both sides.
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