N.C. judge hears FSU v. ACC jurisdiction case, case to seal ACC/ESPN record
Friday morning marked a milestone in Florida State and the Atlantic Coast Conference's lawsuits against each other.
After months of posturing, lawyers representing FSU and the ACC convened in a Mecklenburg County Courthouse in Charlotte, N.C., on Friday morning for state judge Louis A. Bledsoe III to hear arguments about FSU's motion to dismiss or stay the lawsuit in North Carolina in favor of it being settled in North Carolina as well as an ACC motion to seal the documents related to the conference's contract details with ESPN.
Lawyers from FSU, the ACC and ESPN were present for the hearing. No rulings were made by Bledsoe Friday afternoon, but he did say he anticipates announcing his ruling before the case management hearing set to be held in Leon County April 9.
Motion to Dismiss/Stay
The day's proceedings began, after a private consultation between the lawyers and Judge Bledsoe, with the arguments from both sides about whether the case should be held in North Carolina or if this case should be dismissed in favor of being settled elsewhere.
FSU, represented primarily by Bailey C. King Jr., went first and attempted to argue that while the ACC filed its lawsuit against FSU in Mecklenburg County on Dec. 21 -- about 18 hours before FSU's Board of Trustees approved the school's lawsuit against the ACC on Dec. 22 -- that the conference didn't get the formal approval of its member institutions until January, something that FSU believes should negate the ACC's first-to-file advantage.
"The ACC failed to get a vote of its members because it wanted to be first," King said, according to Doug Rohan of Rohan Law who was at the hearing in person.
King argued that the ACC did not have its required standing to file until Jan. 12, thus meaning that the ACC should not have the priority here and the case in Mecklenburg County should be dismissed because of this.
Judge Bledsoe questioned FSU's representation on, regardless of who filed first, why the Florida court system is the correct place to decide what happens to a North Carolina-based business like the ACC when the impact of that decision will be felt across all states that have member institutions.
King's response mentioned sovereign immunity, essentially stating that since FSU is a state-funded university that it can't be sued by the ACC without consent from the state of Florida and thus indicating the case should be settled in Florida.
James P. Cooney, who was representing the ACC in court Friday, focused much of his argument around integrity.
“Ultimately, this is about integrity of agreements, integrity of promises, integrity of how parties deal with each other over a number of years," Cooney said, according to ESPN's David Hale, also in attendance.
He also argued that by signing the ACC Grant of Rights, something he says FSU's president at the time did even if FSU says otherwise now, FSU agreed not to challenge the GoR. He further stated that even holding a meeting to discuss suing the ACC like FSU did in December broke that covenant and opened FSU up to being sued.
Noteworthy in this case even though it wasn't discussed much Friday is the fact that Clemson filed a similar lawsuit against the ACC mere days before Friday's case-management hearing.
Motion to seal ACC/ESPN documents
With no final ruling shared by Bledsoe, the hearing then moved on to the ACC's motion to seal its media rights agreement with ESPN.
FSU stated during its emergency Board of Trustees meeting that the ACC's media rights agreement with the ACC (much like the grant of rights agreement) goes through 2036 and would lead to FSU needing to pay upwards of $500 million to the conference/network if it wants out of the ACC without being able to void the grant of rights.
Furthermore, FSU has brought to public attention that no ACC schools are allowed to have copies or pictures of the conference's media rights agreement, with the only copy kept at ACC Headquarters in Charlotte.
While the Grant of Rights agreement is now public, FSU's representation said FSU, as well as Judge Bledsoe, each have only 13 pages of the 160-page document, leaving quite a bit hidden, which FSU hopes to make public.
FSU's legal representation argued Friday that the ACC's media rights agreement should be considered public record and released to the public. The ACC countered by saying that has never before happened in D-I athletics and would be harmful both to the ACC and ESPN if released.
ESPN's lawyers in attendance at Friday's hearing also spoke out against the media rights agreement being released publicly after filing in support of the ACC's motion to seal the agreement last month in North Carolina.
Bledsoe did not make rulings in either case from the bench Friday. Instead, he said he anticipates sharing his written ruling at some point before the case management hearing scheduled in Florida for April 9.
The judge's decision to delay ruling is not at all uncommon, a retired Federal Judge advised The Osceola and for any number of reasons, including to verify a point of law made during the oral arguements,