ACC must share ESPN contracts with FSU after Tallahassee court order

The ACC has seven days to give Florida State copies of its ESPN contracts and related documents under a court order signed Thursday.

The Leon County court order obtained by the Tampa Bay Times formalizes confidentiality terms previously agreed upon by both FSU and the ACC as part of their ongoing, dueling lawsuits. The documents will be “treated as confidential in their entirety” until a court can fully determine whether they deserve protection as trade secrets. Florida’s broad public records law is also a factor for issues involving a state entity like FSU; the Florida Attorney General’s Office has sued the ACC, claiming the contracts are public.

Until these questions are resolved, the order — signed Thursday by Judge John C. Cooper — prohibits FSU from sharing or disclosing details of the documents for any reasons unrelated to the litigation. The documents to be shared are: the ACC’s 2010 multimedia rights agreement, a 2012 amendment and extension, a second amendment from 2014, a 2016 restated and amended deal, the ACC Network contract from 2016, and an August 2021 letter amendment to the current (2016) deal.

Previously, officials from FSU and other league members had to travel to North Carolina to view ESPN contracts under strict guidelines.

Florida State must return or destroy the documents within 60 days of this litigation’s end.

The documents are at the heart of the ongoing lawsuits playing out in Leon County (where FSU has sued the ACC) and North Carolina (where the ACC has sued FSU). They’re also relevant to the similar litigation between Clemson and the conference.

The meaning of those contracts and another document — the grant of rights — is in dispute. How they’re interpreted by a court (or courts) will help determine the exit costs for FSU and Clemson, if they choose to leave the league. The exit fee alone is about $140 million. The bigger question is this: Who owns the future TV rights of FSU games after the Seminoles leave the ACC? The Seminoles have estimated they could lose out on more than $400 million if they surrender their TV rights until 2036 (when the ACC says its ESPN contract expires).

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