For several months, Florida State and the ACC have dominated court dockets in two states. Now we move on to the ACC and Clemson getting to court this week in Mecklenburg County, NC. On Tuesday we are scheduled for a Case Management Conference before Judge Louis Bledsoe III in Charlotte, NC.
The Grant of Rights
Like Florida State, Clemson wants out of the conference TV Grant of Rights contract. And while there are arguments to be fought over at trial, the first battle is over jurisdiction. Like the Florida State case, there are suits and countersuits in two states. Unlike the Florida State case, the ACC is not being accused of preemptively filing legal action.
In the back-and-forth between the ACC and FSU, the conference filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Charlotte days before the school’s board of trustees had even officially approved its own lawsuit in Leon County, FL.
In ACC v. Clemson, however, the conference waited until the day after Clemson had filed its own lawsuit in Pickens County, SC before filing its own litigation in North Carolina.
Jurisdiction First
The jurisdictional issues have to be resolved before any of the significant arguments of fact can even begin. Clemson is arguing, as did FSU, that the issues must be resolved in its home state. The school says because the GoR is about TV broadcast rights for the school’s home games, it’s an SC case. Clemson’s attorneys will be arguing at some point to dismiss the case in North Carolina.
The ACC counters that the conference headquarters have always been in North Carolina and are currently in Charlotte. Counsel for the conference has also contended in written briefs that the ACC, “…owns no property, has no employees, is not registered to do business, and is not at ‘home’ in any jurisdictional sense in South Carolina.”
Florida State lost its similar motions in front of Judge Bledsoe earlier this year. Because the case is being heard in NC’s Complex Business Cases court, it allows the school to skip the rest of the appellate process. Florida State will seek to have its appeal heard by the state Supreme Court. That is expected to be heard sometime early in 2025.
The case in Leon County is also under appeal. The ACC is seeking a state appellate court to overturn some of Judge John C. Cooper’s procedural decisions.
What’s Ahead
Clemson v. ACC has a scheduled hearing before Judge Perry Gravely on July 12th in Pickens County. With the school as the plaintiff in that case, Clemson will also be arguing that the exit fee to get out of the conference is punitive and unenforceable. With the stated fee being three times the operating budget of the conference at the time of exit, it is estimated that it would come to about $140 million.
Also to be heard on Tuesday are issues surrounding the redaction and sealing of large portions of the ACC contract with ESPN. The network’s attorneys have contended that its business practices must be protected with confidentiality. Clemson and the ACC appear to be closer to an agreement on that than do the conference and Florida State.
