Florida State and the ACC Could Split (w/ a Settlement) by August | Insight from Attorney Doug Rohan

If you've been following this channel for a while, you know everything about everything that's going on in the ACC with Florida State and Clemson, we have dueling lawsuits, we have four different lawsuits in three different

state

s, it's a lot to try to figure out and keep together. and uh I'm not a legal expert so I'm going to bring in a legal expert and Doug Rohan from Rohan Law what your legal background is just so everyone knows before we get started. Thank you very much for inviting me. On the show, it's a pleasure to be here, meet you and talk to your viewers, of course, I'll follow the comments later and answer any questions that come up after the show, but I have my own practice in Atlanta.

Georgia, uh, I've been in practice for 20 years, I've had my own firm for over 10 years and we specialize in workplace accidents and criminal defense, which is everything from speeding tickets to murder, we have an excellent criminal defense team. with multiple

attorney

s who can handle any type of case and then workplace accidents are a particularly difficult set of circumstances when someone is injured at work and loses their income. There are laws designed to provide them benefits, but the reality is that the insurance company. very rarely does what it's supposed to do so we're here to punch them in the throat when necessary we say we want to be your best friends on your worst day I hope no one needs my services but unfortunately I get a dozen or two dozen of calls every day from someone who woke up and didn't realize they needed to call my office, so if you're ever in Atlanta, if you're in the

state

of Georgia, if you have friends that need anything. feel free to give us a call, but for now all I would ask of your viewers and followers is to visit us on adventures, how about in simple terms what is the lawsuit between the state of Florida and the ACC of both parties?

I guess in both cases, how

could

I best lay out what's going on there in the most basic way? Well, thank you very much John for inviting me here. I have been following your show and appreciate what you have been sharing with your viewers. It really comes down to a lot of what you said you were right about in much of your assessment. that the state of Florida is upset The state of Florida is frustrated and the state of Florida is doing everything it can to try to get out of the ACC for the most reasonable price possible, so the state of Florida announced, as required by law of Florida, that there would be an emergency Board of Directors.

At a meeting on December 22 and in response to that announcement by a Board of Directors, at a meeting, the ACC went ahead and filed in Mecklinburg County its request for a declaratory judgment. Action Now, what they were trying to say in North Carolina by the ACC is that the grant of rights is enforceable and the state of Florida is subject to the grant of rights the next morning, as expected, the Board of Trustees of the state of Florida agreed to go ahead and file a lawsuit which, of course, they already had prepared and drafted. and I'm sure they shared copies and did what was expected: file in Tallahassee, Leyon County, their motion for a declaratory judgment, so in both cases the court is only being asked to define what the agreement is now contractual in response. to the ACC running to the courthouse to have this run to the courthouse to try to take priority over the state of Florida.

The state of Florida filed an amended complaint in Leyon County and that's where the gloves really started to come off, that's where we started talking about John Swafford and that's where we started talking about all the other side issues related to this in response of course the ACC also filed their amended complaint in Mecklinburg County addressing why the state of Florida was breaching its fiduciary duty to the conference and all the bad things Florida has been doing this is effectively a commercial divorce and when you give take a step back for those who criticize Florida State, you have to understand people, Florida State leaders did the math and Vanderbilt was going to receive 30-40 million dollars per year more than the Florida State athletic program starting in 2026 and that was something that was simply unsustainable.

Now add in what we've known since then about the playoff deals and those additional payments that are now also scheduled on a sliding scale in favor of the power two and that number is actually closer to 50 or maybe $60 million per year, so yes, Florida State signed an agreement, yes, Florida State signed a contract, but the reality is that the ACC did not do what they were obligated to do in granting the right situation, Florida State. and all other members gave their rights to the ACC to therefore manage and work on the best possible agreement, so this litigation ultimately boils down to an allegation that the ACC failed in its fiduciary duty to exceed the value that the state of Florida

could

have. it was obtained on its own to maximize value and that's where all the Swafford stuff and the confusion comes in and we can get into those details later, yeah, on that front, you know, I mean as an outsider and someone with no legal experience , I start searching.

Watching it and it's like a guy goes so deep into some of those things like John Swafford and nepotism, I started to feel okay, this would seem like trying to get them to go in a bunch of different directions and getting tired of this and just being like look, We could just settle like we don't want to deal with all of these things that are going on, it's just that from a legal standpoint, that seems to be what the strategy is here and where this may ultimately be. Because of that, there is an agreement that is a very valid criticism and is the reality of what the state of Florida is trying to achieve from the status quo.

If the state of Florida loses in every way, we are stuck in the ACC until 2036. If we owe the ACC 500 million dollars, we don't pay them a lump sum, but we simply won't be able to do well if we don't fight for our freedom, if The State of Florida is not trying to pressure the ACC into any type of agreement. okay so we are still stuck in the ACC until 2036 so the status quo is why I say doing nothing was unsustainable. Doing nothing endangered the existence of the state of Florida as a national power, so yes, these salacious details are not exempt.

Merit and it may be out of time, it may be beyond the limitations of statistics, that is a different topic, but the allegations are examples that the state of Florida is using to show the judge evidence that the ACC has not operated at the rise and they have not worked. for the benefit of their members, they have in fact worked against the benefit of their members, so while those specific points may seem gross and may seem like just confusion over data points to give the judge a reason to find only a cause of action in Favor of FSU Florida State doesn't need to win every argument, they just need to win one argument, yes, which one is the most compelling piece for you.

The state of Florida's argument on this side, well, the first hurdle we talk about, really, where, where. We're procedurally, we're still fighting over whether this is going to be a North Carolina case or a Florida case and that's where Judge Cooper's order came out yesterday. Those are the most recent tweets. If you follow me at Rohan Law PC, there is no Question: A double n judge in Florida Leon County will lean in favor of the state of Florida and there is no doubt that an ACC graduate from, I believe, Duke University and Judge Bledo have a very likely chance of supporting and being in favor of ACC.

The judges have shown some fairness and I think both judges are capable of deciding on the merits, but both teams want home advantage, it doesn't mean you win if you have home advantage, but it certainly helps your chances, so in North Carolina the judge cursed throughout the game. Northern ACC's allegation that Florida State breached a fiduciary duty to the conference. They said there's no way for anything under the law to support any duty that the state of Florida owed the ACC other than what's in the contract and we'll talk about that and similarly about the state of Florida. judge Judge Cooper in Leyon County somewhat embarrassingly dismissed the entire complaint with authority for the state of Florida to refile it now, that's what we in business call a problem.

Yes, it is a problem that his complaint was dismissed, but this now comes later. The Clemson lawsuit has begun, so Florida State has the opportunity to dismantle their entire argument back to Bare Bones and rebuild it. They can file a whole new complaint with new allegations and that's what I expect to see in the coming weeks. I know you remind me of something I saw someone. I think maybe it was even on Twitter today or maybe it was Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times who's been covering this quite a bit, but like we have two different sets of lawsuits going on. here, like what happens in a world where we like a different ruling in both cases and now you have the ACC against Clemson, it's one way, Florida State against the ACC, it goes the other way, like how could convol finally get it . it could get very sloppy and very complicated and, in fact, that is one of the reasons why both judges have reminded all parties that this case must be settled and will probably be resolved.

I would put the odds of agreement at about 98% that we see in practice every day. My background is in work accidents and criminal defense and the reality is that there are very few cases that go to trial the only cases that go to trial are cases that have to be tried uh my client needs back surgery the insurance company does not No we want to approve it, we can't reach an agreement because no matter how much money is offered, we need the doctor to perform the back surgery, that is an example of a case that has to go to trial, here we are trying. a contract is about money, money can absolutely be resolved one way or another, now both parties can be dissatisfied and then frankly, usually in agreements and in mediations neither party is completely satisfied, but that's just the sign of a reasonable agreement, so that is the question. en What is the moment and when?

But getting to your other answer or your other question is one of the big unknowns as far as I can tell in my research because again I will remind your viewers that we talked about this off the air. I do contract law. I am not an expert in media rights. I have been learning this as we go. I am a lawyer with my own practice. I'm an FSU fan. These are my two loves together and I want to analyze what is happening. other FSU fans now have a broader national audience as to what is really going on, the best I can tell is that there is a chance that neither court will give up the right to try this case, that both cases could come to a definitive conclusion and then we have the um the The Constitution of the United States will dictate that whoever comes to a conclusion first must receive full faith and credit from the other state, so if a state court decision occurs in a state, the other state is obliged to accept that result, that is why there have been so many things. a lot of questions about the pace at which these cases are moving forward because if both cases are going to move forward, that's the next question, okay, who can finish first?

Yeah, and speaking of pace, what's a reasonable timeline for reaching agreements here? A little unprecedented, we've never seen a conference in a school sue each other, but the best that can be said is what would be a reasonable amount of time to wait for all of this to end. An analogy we can fall back on is Maryland. . exit from the ACC, that happened at the beginning of all the big RS and the exit fee increase, but Maryland was the only member that said, you know what I don't like these new rules, I don't like these new purchasing provisions , I'm out, it took them 18 months to reach an agreement in 2012 and 2013, we are now in a more aggressive news cycle, the press conference realignment is moving a little faster now that we also have the pressure point very important. from ESPN with a decision deadline of February 2025, so I personally think August 15 is a very important date, so there are a couple of important dates.

I'll give you a conspiracy theory version after I give you my version, but August 15 is the date. which a member needs to announce their departure from the conference, so even if there is some kind of agreement or framework, I don't think there will be an announcement before August 16 and the reason is because the ACC wants another year of FSU broadcasting. human rights and, frankly, the state of Florida could use another year to find a landing spot, not that they don't already have a handshake agreement somewhere, but it will provide amore orderly transition to its new conference, one of the secondary issues that many people don't realize is that Florida State is going under due to a massive stadium renovation and the question is whether it will be ready in time for the 2025 season.

We know that the 2024 season will be a construction, so they don't want to open, you know? a new conference partner, especially a marquee game if they're still fixing some construction, uh, review there, so I personally think nothing happens before August 16th. There are some who consider July 30 or sorry, June 30 as an important date because July. 1 is when SMU joins as a member and then in August we have two more members, Cal and Stanford, joining Stanford, so some think there is this nuclear option where seven members of the conference just vote to dissolve the conference in its entirety and that this would have to happen before June 30.

I don't know if we're on time for something so dramatic. I really think a mutual agreement for some sort of deal in August or soon after is probably the best option. certainly before the SPN's February deadline to decide what they want to do