Florida State’s motion to dismiss its lawsuit with the ACC was denied in a Mecklenberg (N.C.) court by Chief Business Court Judge Louis A. Bledsoe on Thursday.

The FSU vs. ACC has included filings and appeals from both legal teams and in cases in Leon County as well as Mecklenberg County (Charlotte, N.C.). Jurisdiction for the case could be critical and has not yet been determined.

But Thursday’s decision is an indication the ACC has earned jurisdiction since it filed first in Mecklenberg County, late on Dec. 21, 2023 and a day ahead of FSU’s Board of Trustees meeting. The FSU BOT legally needed to give notice that a meeting would be held, mandated by Florida law, and the ACC grabbed the opportunity to file.

In Thursday’s filing, “As the ACC correctly notes, to protect its rights (under the Grant of Rights), the conference was not required to wait until FSU sued, breaching that covenant,” but “was entitled to enforce that covenant when breach was imminent.”

And in a statement by the ACC on Thursday: “We are pleased with today’s decision, which confirms North Carolina courts are the proper place to enforce the ACC’s agreements and bylaws. We remain committed to acting in the best interests of the league's members and will see this process through to protect and advance the ACC."

FSU’s filing on behalf of the BOT had argued that it had “not yet met, much less voted to initiate litigation” and also could have met and opted not to file a lawsuit. The FSU argument is that no “actual and justiciable controversy existed when the ACC filed its complaint late in the afternoon” on Dec. 21, 2023.

The Mecklenberg court asserts that “FSU Board’s initiation of litigation over the Grant of Rights Agreements was unavoidable and a practical certainty.”

There is a hearing set for Leon County court to be heard by Justice Cooper, on April 9.

Clemson also filed suit in South Carolina in March, with the ACC following up with its suit days later. At that point, Clemson’s legal team came out in defense of FSU and stated the ACC did not acquire a two-thirds vote to file suit in Mecklenberg County.

In Thursday’s filing, “The ACC does not dispute that it did not obtain an ‘absolute two-thirds majority approval of its members prior to filing the complaint; rather, the conference contends that such approval was unnecessary because the relief requested in the complaint did not amount to ‘material litigation’ and, moreover, had been previously authorized by the members based on the ACC’s obligation to protect ESPN’s rights under the ESPN agreements.”

The court again sided with the ACC. Later, the ruling stated: “The Court concludes that the ACC was properly authorized to bring this litigation.”

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Also, later in the ruling, the court addresses FSU’s approval of the GOR. That was first approved unanimously by the BOT in 2013 and again in 2016 by then-president John Thrasher. “The Court concludes that the ACC has sufficiently pleaded that the FSU Board approved the execution of both the Grant of Rights and Amended Grant of Rights.”

The ACC asserts an FSU representative reviewed the ESPN agreements at the ACC’s headquarters (in Greensboro, N.C., at that time) in Oct. 2022, Jan. 2023 and on Aug. 1-2, 2023. The “implied confidentiality” of the ESPN agreements review was breached by FSU, the ACC argued. The court “concludes that the ACC has sufficiently pleaded at least an implied-in-fact contract between the ACC and the FSU Board to maintain the confidentiality of the terms.”

Of note, the court later concludes the ACC is a “natural” plaintiff in its dispute with FSU. That the ACC is a natural plaintiff “is sufficient for the ACC to maintain its first-filer advantage.”

The court also stated the ACC’s history of having headquarters in Greensboro and now Charlotte “strongly favor the litigation of this matter in North Carolina” while also mentioning the state delivering a tax incentive to move to Charlotte.

FSU did score one legal point in the eyes of one legal analyst, in regards to "fiduciary duty" to the ACC.

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