Florida State, ACC Lawsuit: On the Way to Mediation

© Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports

Florida State, Clemson and the Atlantic Coast Conference are mired in a handful of complex lawsuits in which the 2 flagship universities of the conference have filed lawsuits designed to pave the way for them to leave without paying multi-million dollar contractually-specified penalties. The complexity of the lawsuits increased when ESPN joined the fray to prevent the litigants and their lawyers from publicly releasing evidence relating to media rights. The litigation could drag out for years. However, a court has ordered the parties to participate in mediation, which offers the possibility of a more short-term settlement.

The Legal Battle

Two of the ACC's foremost brands—Florida State and Clemson—are entangled in legal battles with the conference. Reporting on FSU's legal goals, Yahoo Sports wrote: "The Seminoles are attempting to exit the conference without paying both the exit fee and the cost of buying out its media rights, which it agreed years ago to grant to the conference. The price tag of such an exit is estimated to be at more than $500 million, according to court records."

The case has been proceeding in separate lawsuits and multiple states. The venue of one of the lawsuits is Florida, home of the Seminoles. Another is proceeding in North Carolina, where the ACC is headquartered. Clemson's legal actions against the ACC are playing out in South Carolina and North Carolina.

Mediation

Tallahassee, Fla. Judge John C. Cooper directed the parties to participate in mediation and to attempt to resolve some of the issues in the case. Mediation can be an important step in legal proceedings. It involves in-person discussions between the litigants in front of a neutral mediator, designed to reach a compromise short of a costly trial. Mediation can take days or even weeks, depending on the complexity of the case.

A mediator has been selected and the mediation proceedings are scheduled to convene the week of Aug. 12. A mediator cannot force the parties to settle. He or she can only seek to facilitate settlement.

In ordering the litigants to participate in mediation, Judge Cooper said, "The case is not over. The case will continue. I send every case to mediation except mortgage foreclosures. This is not being done any differently." However, the judge directed the parties to make a "good-faith" effort to settle at mediation.

Reason exists for skepticism about the prospects of any resolution through mediation. The ACC has shown no receptivity to settlement and has a strong hand to play based on long-term contracts Florida State and Clemson signed, binding them to the ACC. And, at the recent ACC Media Days, conference commissioner Jim Phillips condemned the legal maneuvers of FSU and Clemson as "disruptive and harmful" attempts to unjustifiably exit the league. He vowed to fight for the conference and all of its member universities for "as long as it takes."