A double Gator is going to bat for the Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles in court.
Attorney General Ashley Moody, who got her bachelor's degree and her law degree from the University of Florida, filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for failure to disclose what she believes are public records in the form of media rights contracts.
Moody, who initially requested the records in January to no avail, is shredding the embattled conference for a lack of transparency, a meaningful concern given her contention that FSU "examines and uses the media rights contracts in the transaction of the agency's official business."
"The ACC is asking a state entity — Florida State University — to potentially pay and lose more than a half a billion dollars but is refusing to produce the documents related to that outrageous price tag. We sent a public records request to the ACC in January, but they failed to fully comply. We are taking legal action against the ACC for wrongfully withholding these important public records," she said Thursday.
The suit was filed in the Leon County Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit.
Moody's filing rehashes concerns about how the Seminoles football team completed an undefeated regular season in 2023, but "despite this achievement, FSU was deprived of a coveted playoff spot in the 2023-2024 College Football Playoff in favor of two other one-loss teams from competing conferences."
This offers evidence for what the filing calls a "deteriorating environment for the Media Rights Contracts" along with "a threatened imposition of 'unparalleled' withdrawal penalties that could range from $572,000,000 to $700,000,000."
The filing also broaches the discussion of an argument that the ACC's shielding of the agreements is legal under "trade secrets" legislation, saying that wouldn't apply here because the ACC "has not maintained the secrecy of many portions of the Media Rights Contracts, including portions relating to confidentiality, the existence of warranties, descriptions of the amounts previously received by FSU under the contracts at issue in this litigation."
The action is also reliant on the Florida Constitution, which Moody says "creates a broad right to inspect the records of any state or local governmental body" via Article I, section 24(a).
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