ACC settling lawsuits provides short-term stability, but conference realignment still lingers down the road

Tuesday’s news that the ACC and member schools Clemson and Florida State dropped their lawsuits against each other was both anticipated and yet one of the more dramatic reversals in recent memory. 

There was a time not long ago that it felt like a matter of when, not if, Florida State and Clemson would leave the ACC. The public legal battle between the conference and its two schools had cast a pall over everything the ACC did, forcing commissioner Jim Phillips to address it at seemingly every major conference event. 

Florida State, Clemson and the rest of the ACC schools voting Tuesday to end the four lawsuits and introduce a new revenue distribution system is only one piece of the puzzle, however. 

There are a lot of potential ramifications of this decision, both for the conference in the short term as well as future realignment. 

What does this mean for the ACC now?

In the short term, at least, this is a win for all involved. The ACC no longer has to deal with the negative headlines of two of its premier brands suing it, with one even accusing it of pushing the conference to its brink. The lawsuits threatened to expose sensitive information and, even more impactful, could have led to easy exits for multiple ACC schools if Florida State and Clemson had won the crux of their arguments. 

For the schools, the revamped revenue distribution will put greater emphasis on television ratings. Florida State athletic director Michael Alford introduced a similar concept two years ago, and if FSU and Clemson receive a bigger cut moving forward, as expected, it can help placate the concerns driving the lawsuits which were that the conference’s annual payout was falling way behind that of the Big Ten and SEC. It could lead to a reported extra $15…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/acc-settling-lawsuits-provides-short-term-stability-but-conference-realignment-still-lingers-down-the-road/

Author : John Talty

Publish date : 2025-03-04 18:00:00

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