Atlantic Coast Conference leaders are discussing new ways of divvying up media rights revenue that could potentially resolve legal disputes with Florida State and Clemson, two people familiar with the league’s internal talks told The Associated Press on Tuesday night.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because there is no fully formed proposal and a resolution is far from imminent.
The discussions internally and with Florida State are an extension of a mediation session last month between the conference and the school that was ordered by the Florida judge overseeing the lawsuit FSU’s board of trustees filed against the ACC in December, the people said.
Changes being considered to the revenue-sharing model would, similar to the ACC’s recently adopted success initiative, be accessible to all members. Instead of rewarding accomplishments on the football field or basketball court, a new revenue-distribution system could reward schools for how valuable they are to television partners, one of the people said.
Yahoo! Sports first reported that ACC presidents were reviewing ways to tweak the league’s revenue-sharing structure that could appease its disgruntled members.
Seeking a potential exit from the ACC, Florida State sued the conference in December, challenging the validity of a contract that binds member schools to the conference and each other through media rights and claiming the league’s exit fees and penalties for withdrawal are exorbitant and unfair.
In its original compliant, Florida State said it would cost the school more than half a billion dollars to break the grant of rights and leave the ACC.
Last week, Florida State filed a request in Leon County Court for a summary judgment, asking the judge to rule on certain key parts of the case without a trial.
The ACC filed a lawsuit against Florida State in North Carolina the day before FSU filed its suit last year.
Then, in March, Clemson sued the ACC in South Carolina and the ACC, in turn, filed another lawsuit in North Carolina against that school.
The conference claims both schools are breaching their contracts simply by suing to get out of a deal they have signed twice in the past 10 years.
ACC university presidents and chancellors discussed revenue-sharing alternatives during regularly scheduled meetings last week in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the league offices are located, and again during a routine call Tuesday, one of the people said.
The ACC is locked into television contract with ESPN through 2036 that Florida State says will leave the school lagging behind competitors in the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference by as much as $40 million a year.
But remaining in the ACC under new financial terms could be still be the best option for Florida State and Clemson, the league’s two most recent football national champions.
It is unclear whether either would find homes in the Big Ten or SEC — the richest of the Power Four leagues — if they were able to leave the ACC through lawsuits.
Also, those legal challenges could take years to play out, with the ACC unmotivated to settle with those two schools and risk opening the door to other members leaving.
“We’re going to fight,” ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said during an ESPN interview last month. “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.”
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