Florida State University and the Atlantic Coast Conference have filed lawsuits against each other in their home states.
The ACC, which operates out of Charlotte, North Carolina, will have its first court hearing in Leon County in April. The conference is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit FSU filed over its media rights deal.
In December, the chairman of FSU’s Board of Trustees, Peter Collins took issue with the ACC. He said the conference owes FSU more money for its televised games.
“I believe that we have exhausted all possible remedies within the conference," said Collins. “We must do what we believe is best for Florida State not only in the short term, but in the long term."
Other programs have cashed in on lucrative media deals, especially schools in the Southeastern and Big 10 conference. FSU has attempted to leave the conference, argues the cost of the departure—estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars—is unreasonable and unworkable.
“We feel very strongly about a document that was willingly signed by one of our members back in '13 and in '16, and we're ready to fight," ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said on the ACC Network in response to FSU’s inquiry. "We will go through this in a reasonable way, but we will protect the ACC."
Phillips said the school signed over its media rights years ago and it would take more than verbal threats to get them back.
Following the commissioner’s statements, the ACC filed a motion in mid-February to a Leon County judge, where FSU is located, to ask that the school’s lawsuit be dismissed. That hearing will take place April 9th at 9:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, on March 22, a judge in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina is scheduled to take up FSU’s motion to dismiss the ACC’s filed lawsuit to try to keep the school from leaving the conference.