Judge sets June date for third FSU vs ACC hearing in Leon County

Liam Rooney, Tallahassee Democrat
Updated ·2 min read

A third hearing in Florida State's lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference in Leon County has been set.

During a Tuesday morning Zoom case management conference call, Leon Circuit Judge John C. Cooper set a date of Tuesday, June 18, with a start time of 9 a.m. for the hearing in the FSU vs. The ACC case in Leon County.

In the April 29 hearing, Judge Cooper asked FSU to file an amended complaint in the school's lawsuit against the ACC, asking the university to make its arguments more clear. The school filed its amended complaint on Thursday, May 16, which led to the Zoom conference call.

The hearing comes as the school and conference participate in two separate and simultaneous lawsuits, one in the ACC's headquarters state of North Carolina, and one in Leon County, home of FSU.

FSU filed a nearly 600-page petition in North Carolina on Friday, asking the state's Supreme Court to review the April rulings made by North Carolina Judge Louis Bledsoe in the ACC's lawsuit against the school. The petition asks for a writ of certiorari, a formal request for a state supreme court to review a case for error or violation.

On April 25, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed a lawsuit against the ACC in Leon County, separate to the suit filed by FSU against the conference, with more information on the start of that hearing yet to be set.

Why is FSU suing the ACC?

FSU and the ACC are in a legal dispute over the league’s Grant of Rights, an agreement in which schools agree to transfer their media rights to their conference for a set period of time (2036 for ACC schools).

The Seminoles believe they should be allowed to leave the ACC without penalty, saying it would cost $572 million to exit the conference. The ACC's suit seeks to uphold the Grant of Rights. - Jim Henry

Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County Judge sets June hearing date for third FSU vs ACC hearing