The tweet cites a Tampa Bay Times article:
Could Florida State buy the TV rights for FSU football from the ACC?Quote:
That's an idea raised in the ACC's motion to dismiss FSU's lawsuit in Leon County.
Buried in 40-plus pages of legalese the ACC made in a court filing Friday was a potential solution to the conference's weeks-long legal back-and-forth with Florida State:
The Seminoles could buy back their TV rights from the conference
.
The ACC contends that it owns those rights through 2036. That's because FSU signed a document called a grant of rights in 2016. FSU granted the rights to broadcast its home games to the ACC through 2036. The ACC sold them to ESPN and distributes the money back to FSU and its peers.
Whether that deal is enforceable could ultimately be decided by a judge in Leon County or Mecklenburg County, N.C. If it's ironclad as the ACC argues FSU estimates that it risks losing up to $429 million in TV revenue. If FSU is correct, then the Seminoles could exit for free.
The ACC's latest motion presents a third option.
"If Florida State wishes to regain control of the rights before the end of the term, it could attempt to repurchase them," the filing said. "But having to buy back a right which was assigned is not a penalty; it is simply a commercial possibility."
So, in a 40 page motion to dismiss, the ACC raises the possibility that FSU could
attempt to buy back its rights from the ACC. The ACC has not agreed to negotiate such a deal with FSU. Doesn't sound to me as anything is imminent, nor that the ACC is really interested in working out a deal. Rather, they are merely pointing out to the court that a judgment voiding the grant of rights is not the only way out.
I'm shocked, shocked, to find that a tweet is misstating an argument from a legal brief. That never happens.