Florida State, ACC complete court-ordered mediation as legal fight drags into football season

Updated Aug. 22, 2024 7:39 p.m. ET

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Florida State and the Atlantic Coast Conference completed mediation mandated by a Florida judge, according to a court filing posted Thursday, as the legal battle between the school and the league it has been a member of for 32 years appears poised to drag into the football season and beyond.

According to the filing, representatives of the school and conferences mediated in person on Aug. 13.

“Although the parties did not resolve this matter, the parties continue discussions,” the two-sentence joint notice of mediation compliance stated.

Florida State Board of Trustees v. the Atlantic Coast Conference was filed in December and is one of four active cases in three states involving the league and two of its most high-profile member schools.

Florida State and Clemson are both searching for an affordable way out of the ACC, challenging what they consider to be exorbitant exit fees and a contract that binds member schools to each other and the conference through media rights. Florida State says leaving the ACC now could cost more than half a billion dollars.

The ACC has countersued both schools, saying neither has the right to sue and are breaching their contractual agreements by doing so.

Leon County Judge John Cooper, who is overseeing FSU's lawsuit against the ACC, ordered the two sides into non-binding mediation in April, a common practice by the judge to try to initiate a quick resolution in a case that could take years to play out in court.

Neither the conference nor the school is permitted to speak publicly about what was discussed in a mediation session, but ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips has been consistent in his message.

"We're going to fight," he said during an ESPN interview earlier this week. "And that's the way it should be when you sign an agreement twice — willingly sign — and that you are part of a group that comes together and decides that this is what you want to do for the next 20 years. And you should be held accountable for that.”

The ACC's media rights contract with ESPN runs through 2036, though the network has an option to end the deal in 2027. ACC members also signed a grant of rights that runs concurrent with the ESPN deal and hands over the broadcast rights to the school's home football games through the length of the agreement.

Florida State and Clemson say the value of the deal leaves them at a disadvantage when compared to schools in the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten.

Neither school has notified the conference that it intends to withdraw. Doing so would require one-year notice, according to conference bylaws.

Aug. 15 was believed to be a key date if Florida State or Clemson were looking to make a move for the 2025-26 school year, but the day came and went with no action by either school.

Clemson's lawsuit was filed in March in Pickens County, South Carolina.

The ACC’s cases were filed in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

Motions to dismiss and stay each other's cases have been denied in Florida and North Carolina as the schools and the conference argue over jurisdiction and try to gain a home court advantage. Appeals of those decisions have also been filed, but it appears likely that all four cases will move forward.

There is a hearing on Sept. 11 in Florida in front of the court of appeals on the ACC's motion to stay Florida State's case.

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP

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