OT: Florida State to sue ACC over GOR

[CTFAN4LIFE]

If the claim (that he overstepped his authority) was true, any member school that felt aggrieved could have sued immediately upon discovery of that information as it would be serious malfeasance. A hearing on that could have been settled in a matter of hours and the aggrieved schools could have had basically their choice of settlement (including dissolution of the GOR).

There wouldn't be a lot open to legal interpretation if the conference commissioner extended an option that he did not have the authority to extend.

I'm no lawyer, but wouldn't the process be dragged out possibly for a few years including appeals, etc?

 

[billybud]

Billy,

I believe that you are pointing in the wrong direction as to who is being naive here. Not only is that accusation (the commissioner having overstepped his bounds) exceptionally egregious, it is also something that can be readily determined. FSU could have brought that and that alone to a North Carolina court and received a favorable decision in an afternoon if it were truly as you claim.

LOL...I have issued a couple of thousand decisions as an Administrative Law Judge...admittedly, I have been long retired and my elder brain has lapses...but I do know that you have zippo idea how this works.

I remind you that no one knew about the Commissioner's letter to extend until the ACC was dragged into the courts of Florida and South Carolina..that was kept a secret. And, it took the Florida AG getting a court order to have that letter produced (nobody has yet seen it) by August 1

 

[billybud]

Nobody even knew that the ACC ESPN Media Agreement expired in 2027 unless extended by Feb. 2021...The conference kept referencing to the press and members that it was until 2036. And the Media Agreement was kept under lock and key as "confidential"...how could anyone know ?

How did that come out ?...in the Florida courtroom when the judge questioned the ACC representatives under oath.

 

[billybud]

To get an idea...read Clemson's suit...it lays out the need for a declaratory judgement...

https://www.wspa.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/53/2024/03/Clemson-ACC-lawsuit.pdf

 

[dayooper]

If the only item within the lawsuit was that the option was extended then yes, your point would have some merit. The lawsuit appears to be throwing a number of perceived grievances our, hoping that something sticks.

Were they fighting to keep it from their members or from the general public? I seem to remember reading that the member schools were allowed to view the documents in the ACC office, they just weren't allowed to take copies back with them. I also seem to remember the judge in Florida ruling that FSU was allowed to receive a copy but they could not share it with outside parties, could not publicly comment on its contents and were required to destroy the document once they finished reviewing it.

Back to the commissioner and whether he does or does not have the authority to extend an option, operating agreements, management agreements and employment agreements would all be accessible to all members. I know exactly what would happen if I signed a contract as a representative of my firm. I am very confident that ESPN, the commissioner and senior representatives of all ACC member schools knew what the commissioner did and did not have the authority to authorize at the time the extension was agreed to.

This is all well and good in your case, but you have not seen any documents nor have you seen the governance of the conference. You, I or anyone else on this little slice of crazy just don’t know.

You could very well be correct in your assumptions. You might also be incorrect as well. I really don’t have a clue, but if the ACC knew there was a chance they just might lose, they would want to drag this out as long as possible. If there is an ESPN option in 2027 and that best possible outcome depends on whether FSU and Clemson were still in the conference, wouldn’t you want to drag this out as long as possible? That would be my route.

 

[Pat125]

If the claim (that he overstepped his authority) was true, any member school that felt aggrieved could have sued immediately upon discovery of that information as it would be serious malfeasance. A hearing on that could have been settled in a matter of hours and the aggrieved schools could have had basically their choice of settlement (including dissolution of the GOR).

There wouldn't be a lot open to legal interpretation if the conference commissioner extended an option that he did not have the authority to extend.

I agree in theory. For something like this, it shouldn’t matter if the trial was in Mars, a quick judgment should happen. But for some reason, we’ve allowed the wheels of law and “justice” to move much slower than a snail’s pace.

So while we wait for the silly preliminary judgments to creep through, we see representatives or persons claiming to be representatives of all three sides issuing claims and narratives, with little or no proof, and the advocates licking it up. For example, has anyone here actually seen proof of the Feb 2021 business?

So we’re going to see a lot of posturing and people wrongly thinking they alone know the truth before any judgment or settlement occurs, which could occur by 2036.

 

[uchusky32]

The ACC should have merged with the BE when they raided the BE. They would be stable. The BE football teams would have competed better if they were playing rivals. They could have picked up the better leftovers from the PAC instead of the B12.

Oh well. Florida State and Clemson were not long term thinkers back then. Now they are desperate.

 

[billybud]

Part of the suit for the court to hear on...

Login to your account | On3.com

www.on3.com

 

[billybud]

The ACC should have merged with the BE when they raided the BE. They would be stable. The BE football teams would have competed better if they were playing rivals. They could have picked up the better leftovers from the PAC instead of the B12.

Oh well. Florida State and Clemson were not long term thinkers back then. Now they are desperate.

The ACC did sort of merge with the Big East...Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Virginia Tech...

 

[huskymedic]

I'm no lawyer, but wouldn't the process be dragged out possibly for a few years including appeals, etc?

Clearly you’re not a lawyer… billable hours rule!

 

[CTFAN4LIFE]

Clearly you’re not a lawyer… billable hours rule!

That was part of my point. Yes, maybe I was leading the witness!

 

[Chin Diesel]

Part of me says FSU and Clemson need to drag this out while they work new conference membership in the background.

If there was a quick judgement today and tomorrow FSU and Clemson were free to leave, then what? There's a lot of scheduling for stuff outside of football and I'm highly confident no one in the ACC would play them. And it's not in the best interest of the SEC, Big12 or B1G to schedule them and help them get a path to a CFP spot. They'd end up scrambling this year and next to find D1 opponents for all their sports.

 

[uchusky32]

The ACC did sort of merge with the Big East...Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Virginia Tech...

All of it. Cincy and us. And basketball. Merger. Keep both Branding. Instead of North and South.

 

[huskymedic]

Billable hours for the win:



Assisted access <<

Similar read: Clemson prepared to spend another $1 million on ACC lawsuit, records show

 

[whalerfan]

The ACC did sort of merge with the Big East...Miami, Boston College, Syracuse, Pitt, Louisville, Virginia Tech...

that wasn't a merger. that was a corporate take over.

 

[billybud]

The Big East was a "corporate mess"...a hodge podge...basketball without football schools, with schools that had football.

An "all sports" conference where every program supports football, would have just imported the instability faults of the OBE...if they merged with Seton Hall, St. Johns, Providence, Georgetown (and would the basketball schools be happy with the 20% cut of media money ?)

It was that hodge podge that brought the conflicted interests of the non football schools and football schools to a point of instability.

The NBE is happy to be a non football conference...

 

[huskymedic]

 

[huskymedic]

Some beach reading:

 

[huskymedic]

 

[CL82]

Some beach reading:

Because all the black segments will rest your eyes from beach sun strain?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

One lady comment on this (and in all candor I'm a bit stunned with some if the responses).

The item I was commenting on was the assertion that the ACC's commissioner extended the option deadline when he did not have the authority. There are only two items here: was the deadline extended and did he have the authority to do so.

The deadline being extended is self evident. As far as the commissioner's authority: the conference is not new to this business and it is not comprised of schools that are run by amateurs.

On issues as important as this the authority granted to a commissioner would be clearly defined. A judge, a mediator, an arbitrator would not be needed to interpret the language but if it were brought to the point where one were to interpret it, there would be an answer in short order.

There may well be other issues in the litigation that could drag on but I will stand firm on my belief that if the assertion (that the commissioner made a decision on the extension beyond his authority) were true, that would be sufficient on it's own to get FSU, Clemson and any other member that wanted out freedom from the GOR.

 

[billybud]

Yes...

 

[uconnyankee]

The ACC should have merged with the BE when they raided the BE. They would be stable. The BE football teams would have competed better if they were playing rivals. They could have picked up the better leftovers from the PAC instead of the B12.

Oh well. Florida State and Clemson were not long term thinkers back then. Now they are desperate.

That’s not the point of raiding…. You take the value and leave the rest to slowly die or rebound over the next decade or so in a lower tier conference.
Hindsight, they picked some private schools up north (Pitt, Syr, and BC) that all colluded to go into irrelevancy at the same time.

UConn, Cincy and USF were all new to BCS so they were viewed as lightweights. WVU had academic issues, Rutgers was destined to be Washington Generals for BIG, and Temple is Temple.
Ultimately it’s ESPN that makes the decision, just as ESPN will make the decision in the next ACC moves.

 

[freescooter]

If the only item within the lawsuit was that the option was extended then yes, your point would have some merit. The lawsuit appears to be throwing a number of perceived grievances our, hoping that something sticks.

Were they fighting to keep it from their members or from the general public? I seem to remember reading that the member schools were allowed to view the documents in the ACC office, they just weren't allowed to take copies back with them. I also seem to remember the judge in Florida ruling that FSU was allowed to receive a copy but they could not share it with outside parties, could not publicly comment on its contents and were required to destroy the document once they finished reviewing it.

Back to the commissioner and whether he does or does not have the authority to extend an option, operating agreements, management agreements and employment agreements would all be accessible to all members. I know exactly what would happen if I signed a contract as a representative of my firm. I am very confident that ESPN, the commissioner and senior representatives of all ACC member schools knew what the commissioner did and did not have the authority to authorize at the time the extension was agreed to.

In my experience boards want see broad outlines but give the ceo significant latitude to deal with details.

 

[CL82]

The item I was commenting on was the assertion that the ACC's commissioner extended the option deadline when he did not have the authority. There are only two items here: was the deadline extended and did he have the authority to do so.

There's a few more items: If the ACC commissioner's actions were beyond his authority, when did the petitioning schools find out about them? Once they became aware of the alleged unlawful extension, did they take any action to repudiate or otherwise remedy it? Did they take any action to endorse it? Did they accept the benefits from it?

I suspect that the answers to these questions will be problematic for the FSU and Clemson.