The ACC countersued Clemson on Wednesday in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, arguing that the school is subject to the vesting and withdrawal penalty it agreed to as a member of the league, while also seeking monetary damages.
The move comes a day after Clemson sued the ACC in Pickens County, South Carolina, challenging the vesting and $140 million withdrawal penalty, joining Florida State in suing the conference in the first instance. step to potentially leave the league.
The state of Florida filed its lawsuit in December in Florida, a day after ACC preemptively filed its own lawsuit in Mecklenburg County, asking a judge to declare that the grant of rights “is valid and enforceable” and will remain so. until June 30, 2036.
The first hearing in that case in Mecklenburg County is scheduled for Friday.
In its lawsuit against Clemson, the ACC used language similar to that in the lawsuit it filed against the state of Florida. The ACC argued that Clemson, like the state of Florida, signed off on the vesting two separate times, in 2013 and 2016, and also voted in 2012 to increase the withdrawal penalty to “an amount equal to three times the operating budget of the Conference”. “
Clemson disputed the league's view that it controls its rights even once it leaves the conference, calling it “nonsense reading,” “incorrect” and “inconsistent with the plain language of that agreement.”
The ACC is asking a judge to declare that the plain language of the rights grant “means what it says” and is “exclusive and irrevocable” throughout the term.
After dueling lawsuits between the ACC and Florida State were filed in December, the ACC said in its lawsuit that Clemson indicated a “desire to work with the conference” regarding its own membership and “requested confidentiality and protection of that the ACC would not file a lawsuit against him.”
The ACC said it agreed to seek a solution without resorting to litigation. While working to document those assurances, the league says Clemson filed its lawsuit in Pickens County, South Carolina.
In addition to seeking a declaratory judgment on vesting and the withdrawal penalty, the ACC seeks damages from Clemson for its failure to vest and its breach of its “duty of good faith and fair dealing.”
