The State Attorney General for Florida, Ashley Moody, is claiming a victory in her legal battle with ESPN and the ACC over the broadcast contract that exists between the two. After nearly seven months of demanding access to the contract, an agreement has been reached where the AG will get a copy. But it will be redacted and cannot be publicly disclosed.
Moody issued the following statement Wednesday after the agreement was disclosed. “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.”
Technically the contracts are not a part of any public record. That is why her copy will be redacted. ESPN and the ACC are both private entities. They are the only signatories on the contract. Florida State takes part in the contract as a member of the ACC.
The Attorney General Gets Involved
Moody issued a written demand to the ACC in January for a copy of the contract. Her office claimed that the state of Florida had a compelling interest in seeing the agreement. Florida State University and the ACC were already engaged in litigation in two jurisdictions. FSU was suing the conference in Leon County, FL. The school wants to out of the conference and the media Grant of Rights agreement. The ACC was countersuing Mecklenburg County, NC for breach of contract. The ESPN/ACC agreement would be part of the legal discovery.
But Moody inserted her office with the demand for the contract. Neither the ACC nor ESPN took the time to respond to her demand. On April 25th, Moody filed a Complaint for a Writ of Mandamus. It is a legal maneuver that sought authority via demand from the court. Moody was seeking the court to demand that she do her job as legal counsel for the state of Florida. In doing so, she would need a copy of the contract as Florida State is a public university under her jurisdiction.
The bar to get a successful Writ of Mandamus is extraordinary, and her chances were considered slim by legal experts we spoke with. Nonetheless, a court hearing was scheduled for this coming Monday.
The Contract At Issue
In the interim, lawyers for Florida State, the ACC, and ESPN have been arguing in court over the extent of the disclosure of the contract for discovery purposes in the lawsuit.
ESPN has had legal counsel at some of the hearings, claiming that there was a compelling need to safeguard the practices of the network in coming to the long-term contract. Counsel said that making the document part of the public records would subject their trade secrets to open viewing by their competitors like Fox Sports, CBS, and NBC.
The New Agreement
Last week, all three parties came to an agreement. The document will be submitted in full, with redactions. It will exist under a court-ordered seal. Judge John C. Cooper, who is overseeing the Leon County litigation, signed off on the agreement.
The cases in Mecklenburg and Leon Counties are both in the appeals process. The defendants in both cases are appealing the presiding judges’ denial of motions to dismiss.
Moody will now get a version of the contract that her public school, Florida State has already had for six months.
