with their interpretation of the media rights contract and the GOR agreement and make a declaratory judgment. The deck seems stacked because of the venue. If successful, both FSU & Clemson will enter into “direct” talks with other conferences and eventually give their official notices to redraw. I doubt they wait around for the appeal process to play out which could take years and they of course knew this before even taking legal actions. More importantly is what will ESPN do with their unilateral option to extent the media rights contract if these schools are no longer members of the ACC. Josh Pate believes that there will be far more than just these two ACC schools involved in conference realignment. The deadline for ESPN to make a decision is now roughly 6 months away and fast approaching. There are many fans who believe that schools can’t leave the ACC without paying an astronomical exit fee which would almost certainly prevent them from leaving. They believe that the conference will stay as is and that ESPN will extend the media rights contract until 2036. And to suggest otherwise is ludicrous, but it is the actions of FSU and Clemson along with the inactions of ESPN that support an outcome far different than what many fans are suggesting.

…it’s not crazy.

...in the GOR that they signed, they agreed to fulfill all obligations of a conference member during the "Term" (defined as being through June 30, 2036)

“is”. If that’s what’s happening, then their original arguments are failing and they’re getting desperate.

would be more likely to interpret the ENTIRE document as opposed to the tense of one verb.

Whenever you work on contracts at work, you usually think about, "OK, what are the scenarios when this all goes to hell and people pick over this document". Seems like someone leaving for another conference would be the single most worried about use case imho.

any school. It is not the media deal that will access damages, Clemson didn't sign that. It is the stand alone GOR which Clemson signed on and is subject to it until 2036 no matter what the media rights deal may or may not say.

My understanding is that DAMAGES is basically what the courts are being asked to assess when FSU & Clemson leave the ACC. DAMAGES with regards to an Exit Fee and the ACC GOR being broken. It is all about DAMAGES in simple terms. You re-read that ACC GOR, The PDF Link has been on this board in the past. I can provide the Link again if you want it. I remember what the ACC GOR said. The ACC GOR specifically mentioned ESPN as the Media Provider over & over. No other Media Provider but ESPN was ever mentioned or even alluded to in that ACC GOR. If ESPN fails to extend that ACC TV Contract past June 30. 2027. The ACC's business relationship with ESPN could then be effectually terminated on June 30, 2027. How will the ACC then gets courts to levy DAMAGES until 2036 when there is no media rights attached to the GOR for those 9 years? You think the courts will levy DAMAGES based on assumptions that the ACC will get new media rights providers? I think all the ACC members would have to vote on that new media provider and create a new ACC GOR. Good luck getting FSU, Clemson & UNC to sign a new ACC GOR. ** Edited by WarHog38 at 7/15/2024, 4:05:28 PM

It is the GOR . I have read the GOR and the mentions of the ESPN is a contract that the GOR empowered the ACC to enter into. It will be a court decision whether the GOR is limited to this one deal but I don't see how it can be as the individual schools are not parties to the media agreement. Based on reading the GOR I cannot determine that the ESPN deal is the only deal that the ACC has been empowered to negotiate. I also have not seen enough evidence to suggest that ESPN has as much poison pill power in the look in as some say. Do we really know ESPN has a "walk away" power in 2027? or is it just for the ACCN part of the contract? It could also be that there is no walk away but only a chance to modify the terms/value. Could it be that if ESPN can and does walk away that would trigger a filing that it was the actions by FSU and Clemson that caused a drop in the valuation and restitution is needed by the ACC? Now what is really interesting to me is if ESPN does walk away and the ACC presents a new provider/media rights deal. But even if FSU et al would not sign it may not relieve their responsibility under the GOR. In other words until a court says differently, the GOR is ironclad until 2036 even if there are contract modifications or a whole new contract with a new provider. That is what all league members happily agreed to. They thought the ACCN would be cutting edge.

discovery than has been done at this point.

And there is going to be voluminous correspondence backing that up. Why would the parties want an assignment of rights for the life of a contract, if the other party could simply leave the partnership at any time? The GOR was enacted in the wake of Maryland leaving to prevent that in the future. This one ain't hard.

I remember reading some legal jargon years ago. I use to just enjoy reading history & legal books I could get my heads on. I remember reading that these futuristic punitive type damages are the very hardest to get a court of law to put a precise recovery monetary price on. Hard to get a monetary price on because the future is always very fluid by inherent nature. The courts just shun making monetary judgements on very futuristic damage situations. Your interpretations just put the courts siding totally with the ACC on these futuristic situations even if ESPN should dump the ACC in 2027. I don't think the courts will be that liberal, especially outside the state of North Carolina. The FSU attorneys in Florida released that information giving June 30, 2027, as the deadline date for ESPN to renew that ACC TV Contract. ESPN immediately responded by accusing those FSU attorneys of committing a felony for releasing those ACC TV Contract details. ESPN called it releasing Trade Secrets and denied nothing those FSU attorneys had said.

There is no way a court in Florida or South Carolina will be allowed to make a judgment that will cause actual damages to schools in Mass, NY, PA and so on.

that depends what the definition of is is defense. ;-)

Where is the blue dress?

smoked but didn't inhale...