FSU Board of Trustees file lawsuit against ACC for ‘draconian’ financial withdrawal penalties

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State University’s Board of Trustees unanimously voted to move forward with a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference after concerns the school has had with the organization, including “draconian” financial withdrawal penalties.

Trustee Chair Peter Collins said during the board’s meeting on Friday that the school had “reached a crossroads” with the conference, also known as the ACC.

“We are faced with the fact that the ACC is locked in a deteriorating media rights contract with revenues far below other conferences,” he said. “The ACC leadership is also not interested in further negotiations on unique revenue sharing or larger success initiatives.”

“More recently, the ACC voted, over Florida State objection, to add three new teams that add no additional pro rata media value to the conference,” he added. “In fact, these additions will more than likely reduce the per team payouts from the conference after the next contract is executed.”

The three new teams that the ACC added were University of California, Southern Methodist University and Stanford University.

“And at the same time, the ACC has the most draconian financial withdrawal penalties in college sports put in place over a decade ago to keep schools from withdrawing,” Collins added.

David Ashburn, an attorney with GreenbergTraurig, outlined how the ACC progressively grew their withdrawal penalty throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s.

He explained that the ACC originally signed a contract with ESPN in 2011 and renegotiated in 2012 for each of the teams within the conference to receive annually scheduled Tier I payments of $33 million through 2027. However, the ACC granted ESPN the ability to extend the contract through 2036 without any additional compensation.

Ashburn added that at the same time, other conferences were negotiating much larger agreements with ESPN, ultimately creating revenue gaps of tens of million of dollars with the ACC.

Instead of renegotiating their contract, Ashburn shared how the ACC drastically increased their financial withdrawal penalties from less than $22 million in 2011 to $572 million in 2023.

Florida State University President Richard McCullough expressed his favor towards the lawsuit in a press release on Friday.

“I fully support the board’s decision to take this legal action against the ACC,” he said. “It is becoming painfully apparent that Florida State’s athletic ambitions and institutional priorities are no longer served by the ACC’s leadership.”

Collins took a moment during the meeting to emphasize how the lawsuit filing had nothing to do with the school’s football team not being chosen for the College Football Playoff in the previous weeks.

“People outside of FSU may suggest that we are taking action now because of what happened in the College Football Playoff Committee’s selection of the final four teams,” he said during the meeting. “They will say we are just bitter and we want retribution.”

“First, I would say that leaving Florida State out of the playoff was absolutely wrong, a travesty on college football and an insult of FSU’s players and coaches, as well as the ACC,” he said.

“Second, I would say our actions today are less about the events of the last two weeks and far more about the actions of the ACC leadership over the past 10 years and what confronts FSU and the ACC over the next 13 years,” he added.

Florida State was snubbed from an opportunity in the College Football Playoff, despite finishing with a perfect 13-0 record, including a victory in the ACC Championship against the Louisville Cardinals.

Several elected officials across the state commented on the matter, such as Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott.