TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — The Florida State University Board of Trustees unanimously approved a legal settlement with the Atlantic Coast Conference Tuesday.
This ends a 15-month legal battle between FSU and the ACC which hinged on a media rights deal that the university felt was unfair.
The agreement restructures the revenue sharing model of the ACC. The new deal factors in viewership numbers when deciding how much revenue each school in the ACC receives.
Under the new agreement, 60% of "Base Media Rights" would be "placed into a Viewership Pool to be distributed via a ratings-based model".
The new agreement also restructures how schools can withdraw from the ACC. Previously, the exit fee was of three times the yearly operating cost of the ACC with media rights disputed.
The new agreement says "upon notice and payment of withdrawal fee, schools exit with media rights unencumbered". It also says the withdrawal fee reduces over time. FSU is currently in a media rights agreement with the ACC until 2036.
The agreement will go into effect for the upcoming school year.
University trustees said the ACC had already approved the settlement on Tuesday morning, and Clemson University also approved the settlement in its own Board of Trustees meeting. Clemson entered the legal battle in March 2024.
Florida State and the ACC had previously sued each other in separate jurisdictions: FSU in Leon County and the ACC in Mecklenberg County, North Carolina.
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