Florida’s attorney general is suing the Atlantic Coast Conference for failing to turn over media rights contracts involving the Florida State University football program in violation of the state’s Public Records Act.
The lawsuit, which was filed by Ashley Moody’s office on April 25 in the Second Judicial Circuit in Leon County, indicates that Moody requested copies of the contracts in January, but the North Carolina-based ACC refused. The conference contends that the contracts, which determine how much conference members receive from college football broadcasts, contain proprietary information that could harm future negotiations with ESPN if disclosed.
“The contracts are a public record because Florida State University (FSU) examines and uses the media rights contracts in the transaction of the agency’s official business,” the lawsuit states. “The contracts are also the product of delegated authority by FSU to the ACC.”
Moody’s legal filing comes amid ongoing litigation between FSU and the ACC in both Florida and North Carolina over whether the university is legally bound to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties if it formally withdraws from the conference.
The dispute between FSU and the ACC intensified in December after the College Football Playoff Committee declined to give FSU a spot in the college playoffs despite the football team's undefeated record.
“The media rights contracts were made or received in connection with the official business of a public state university, or persons acting on their behalf,” the complaint states. “FSU, along with other members of the ACC, entered in(to) a ‘Grant of Rights’ in 2013 and 2016, transferring exclusive media rights to all its ‘home’ games contests to the ACC.”
The lawsuit references a case, NCAA v. Associated Press, which offers support that the media rights agreements in question is a public record based on the Florida Public Records Act, according to Kevin Paule, an attorney with the Hill Ward Henderson law firm in Tampa and an expert on business disputes.
“Florida State claims that the ACC is unwilling to share a copy of these agreements with the school (or any member of the conference),” Paule said in an email to the Florida Record. “The suit by the Florida attorney general is an attempt by the state to obtain these agreements another way – through public records requests.”
The attorney general’s complaint contends the agreements are public records because they deal with a public university’s business, he said. In addition, the ACC took on the role of a public agency when the conference negotiated the contracts on behalf of FSU, according to Paule.
“I’m not sure how this case will play out, but it’s an interesting litigation tactic by the state that parallels the separate efforts by Florida State to depart the ACC,” he said.
The attorney general’s lawsuit calls on the court to determine that the requested documents are public records subject to disclosure under Florida law and to enter an order to immediately turn over the requested records to the Attorney General’s Office.
“The ACC is asking a state entity – Florida State University – to potentially pay and lose more than a half a billion dollars but is refusing to produce the documents related to that outrageous price tag,” Moody said in a prepared statement. “We sent a public records request to the ACC in January, but they failed to fully comply. We are taking legal action against the ACC for wrongfully withholding these important public records.”