Can’t speak on the GOR but I do remember that Maryland sued the ACC over their exit fee when they left the ACC as being too punitive and unreasonable. Maryland did not have to pay the full exit fee. They got it reduced down to just above half of the ACC’s exit fee. Clemson’s law suit is using the precedent set with Maryland and that 140 million or whatever the exit fee is will be reduced down to just above half based on the precedent set by the Maryland case.

Dustin, great job as always on another excellent video. I think your reporting on this video about Clemson suing the ACC was spot on an perfectly delivered. I know this subject hits close to home for you, with you being a Clemson fan, but I think you handled it perfectly. Keep up the great work. 👍👍🏈

It is completely normal for documents and contracts with a third party (ESPN) proprietary information(payment rates, schedules, escalators) to be held in a secure setting.

Just regarding contracts what the ACC is doing is actually extremely normal. Usually there’s two (or three, depending on the jurisdiction) offfical copies of the contract and are storied in secure locations (usually a company HQ and or a courthouse) just to prevent theft or illegal alterations. I’m guessing that because the grant of rights was between the ACC as a whole and ESPN that’s why they have to go to the ACC HQ to read through it.

My guess is that Clemson and FSU might argue that the GOR contract can't be enforced because there is material change to the original contract. With the addition of Cal, Stanford, and SMU. The original contract is materially different as there is an added travel cost associated with the new members. Not saying it'll work, but I definitely see some lawyer using this as a potential loophole. I took some small amount of Business Law in school, but I am definitely not an expert. Main problem with that idea is the ACC members technically voted them in. Even if those 2 didn't vote in favor, they still "agreed" to the new members.

No chance that FSU and Clemson get out for less than $500 million plus. Can't wait for GT to cash those checks.

But all ACC wanted this high fee. And yall signed it. After Maryland left.