In a rare legal maneuver known as the "Preemptive Countersuit" (citation needed), the ACC responded to Florida State's Friday lawsuit by dropping their own suit against Florida State -- on Thursday.
Florida State is attempting to wrest itself free of the ACC's grant of rights, arguing the $570 million price tag to get out of the conference is too steep and that the ACC hasn't kept up its end of the bargain by positioning its member schools for success on the national stage.
The ACC's response: Hey man, you signed the contract.
The actual language, via WCTV, who first reported the story:
“At its core, this case involves the legal promises of Florida State and its obligations to the Conference to which it has belonged and from which it has profited from for more than 30 year. In 2013 and 2016, Florida State, along with the other Members of the ACC, agreed to and executed a ‘Grants of Rights’ through which it transferred the exclusive media rights to all its ‘home’ games contests to the Conference (the ‘Media Rights’). Florida State and the other Members of the ACC made these grants so that the Conference could negotiate a long-term contract and agreements with ESPN. By aggregating these collective Media Rights in the Conference, the Members were able to realize more value from those Media Rights than if they had each attempted to market them separately.”
The grant of rights, the ACC says, also includes language where schools signed over their ability to sue the conference.
The ACC has argued it does position its teams for success, pointing to its past success in football and men's basketball, and its ongoing success in Olympic sports. Florida State argues, essentially, that winning in lacrosse is nice but an undefeated ACC champion missing the College Football Playoff matters more than a thousand lacrosse national titles.
Florida State filed its lawsuit in Tallahassee; the ACC argues any legal cases should be heard in North Carolina, where the conference is headquartered.
If Florida State's legal case is successful, the school is arguing its exit of the ACC be acknowledged as effective Aug. 14, 2023.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.