ACC seeks to link FSU, Clemson cases at top NC court with 2025 hearing

The Atlantic Coast Conference is asking North Carolina’s highest court to link the schedules for hearing the conference’s lawsuits against Florida State and Clemson universities.

Paperwork filed Tuesday suggests a hearing could take place after mid-January 2025.

Both lawsuits address the multimillion-dollar price tag associated with leaving the athletic conference. One court filing labeled the FSU case a “$700 million” dispute. The legal battle with FSU started in December 2023. The lawsuit against Clemson began in March.

Lower courts rejected both universities’ requests to have the ACC’s lawsuits thrown out of North Carolina courts. Appeals in both suits sit now with the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The ACC, “with consent of all parties,” is asking the court to align the two cases’ schedules moving forward.

Under the proposal, FSU and Clemson would submit briefs in Raleigh by Oct. 15. The ACC would respond by Dec. 15. The universities could submit final briefs by Jan. 15, 2025.

“Furthermore, and in the interest of judicial economy, the parties further request that oral argument in each appeal be separately calendared but set for the same day,” wrote the ACC’s Charlotte-based lawyers.

An oral argument would take place at some point after the Jan. 15 court filing.

Both FSU and Clemson also have active suits against the ACC in their home states.

North Carolina Business Court Judge Louis Bledsoe’s issued a 53-page order in July granting part of Clemson’s request to dismiss the ACC’s legal claims. But Bledsoe refused to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety. He also rejected Clemson’s motion to stay the proceedings in the North Carolina case.

Bledsoe also issued an earlier ruling rejecting Florida State’s request to throw out the ACC’s suit in North Carolina.

“The only court that has jurisdiction over FSU, Clemson, and the ACC — and thus the only court that can assure a consistent, uniform interpretation of the Grant of Rights Agreements and the ACC’s Constitution and Bylaws, the determinations at the core of the Pending Actions — is a North Carolina court,” Bledsoe wrote.

“The Florida court in the Florida Action cannot bind Clemson in South Carolina. The South Carolina court in the South Carolina Action cannot bind FSU in Florida. Each of these courts and this Court could reach conflicting conclusions about the same terms of the same North Carolina contracts upon which the Pending Actions rest — and in so doing create procedural chaos and tremendous confusion at a time when the ACC, FSU, and Clemson need binding clarity concerning their rights under the ACC’s most important contracts with its Members,” the judge continued.

“Only a North Carolina court, most likely in a single consolidated action in North Carolina, can render consistent, uniform determinations binding the ACC, FSU, and Clemson concerning the documents that are at issue in all four Pending Actions,” Bledsoe added.

The state Supreme Court has set its oral argument calendar through October. The court’s website indicates no additional argument sessions in November or December. No oral argument dates have been publicized yet for 2025.