Florida State Rips SMU, Mentions Big 12 in ACC Lawsuit
Florida State made history on Friday, becoming the first-ever school to legally challenge a conference’s Grant of Rights after its Board of Trustees voted unanimously to file suit against the ACC.
In the suit, Florida State alleges that the ACC’s Grant of Rights and withdrawal fee violate Florida statutes in “restraint of trade and alleges breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty with respect to the mismanagement of the ACC’s longstanding multimedia rights deal with ESPN,” according to ESPN’s Andrea Adelson.
The ACC’s Grant of Rights has been described as “Ironclad” in the past, but the Seminoles’ suit will put that to the test. Florida State’s lawsuit took Twitter by storm on Friday, as excerpts from the document are making rounds, talking about everything from the ACC TV deal to the details of the withdrawal fee.
However, one particular excerpt from the document brings the Big 12 into focus while also dragging SMU through the mud, which certainly has people talking.
TCU Insider Jamie Plunkett grabbed these screenshots of Florida State putting SMU in a body bag, and of course, Horned Frog fans can’t get enough of it.
As the suit points out, the Big 12 passed over SMU at every turn, opting to elevate schools like TCU, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Houston, BYU, and UCF ahead of them. SMU would fit the Big 12 like a glove both geographically and culturally, but the conference has never shown true interest in bringing the Mustangs on.
Florida State uses that fact to show just how bad a decision it feels adding a program like SMU to the ACC is, and honestly, it’s quite a good point.
How this suit plays out will play a major role in what college football conferences and alignment might look like in the near future, and will certainly be something that we will all want to follow in the coming weeks and months.
