Florida State filed a motion Tuesday for a partial summary judgment in its lawsuit against the ACC that could expedite the school’s potential departure from the conference, according to court documents reviewed by CBS Sports.
The filing is another development, and perhaps the most significant yet, in the ongoing suit that began in December 2023. FSU is asking for a partial summary judgment related to breach of contract and its ACC exit fee, which is more than $140 million. If the judge in Leon County, Florida, rules in favor of FSU’s request, the school could have more cache to ask the ACC for a reduced exit fee, said Mit Winter, an expert in college sports litigation based in Kansas City.
“Florida State filing this motion for summary judgment is their attempt at a kill shot for all the litigation that’s going on,” said Winter.
The ACC and Florida State met in August for mediation but did not resolve the legal dispute, leading FSU to file a 574-page request for a partial summary judgment this week In Florida. Per court documents, FSU’s attorneys argue the ACC has misinterpreted the conference’s grant of rights, which were amended in 2016, while also breaching its constitution “in three different articles,” including suing FSU without a full vote from its member institutions. They also claim the ACC wouldn’t own the broadcast rights to FSU’s home games should it leave the conference and that those rights were “never granted to the ACC” under 2016’s amended grant of rights agreement.
FSU is pushing for the summary judgment, arguing that “postponing the resolution of this question only compounds the expense and travesty.” The filing contends hundreds of millions of Florida’s dollars are at stake if the case continues, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The filing also asserts the ACC pushed a “false narrative while the terms of the 2016 ESPN Agreements were kept hidden.”
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