Clemson, Florida State in Preliminary Talks to Remain in ACC: Report

The ACC may be renewing talks with their two potential breakaway schools about changes to the revenue sharing model.

Sep 6, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; A view of the ACC logo during the first half of the game between the Southern Methodist Mustangs and the Brigham Young Cougars at Gerald J. Ford Stadium. / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

All the talk this summer has been about the Clemson Tigers and the Florida State Seminoles trying to get away from the ACC.

That may still happen, but according to an ESPN report on Tuesday night, the two schools and the conference may not be done just yet.

Per the report, Clemson and Florida State have broached a proposal that might end the lawsuits that have entangled the two schools and their conference.

The report indicated that, if agreed it, the ACC would alter the league’s revenue-sharing model with new factors like a school’s brand valuation and its television ratings, among other factors. It could alter the end date of the league’s contentious grant-of-rights, which right now is 2036.

What would the ACC get in return? Well, if there’s an agreement, the reported deal would require the Tigers and the Seminoles to put an end to their lawsuits against the conference.

The ACC and the league’s presidents discussed the proposal on Tuesday. Florida State athletic director Michael Alford has been pushing for some level of unequal revenue sharing since last year.

Right now, the ACC divides revenue equally and distributed $44.8 million per school for the 2022-23 athletic year, on par with the Big 12 but more than $7 million behind the SEC, a gap that is expected to widen.

The ACC proposed an unequal revenue sharing model last year but it was not agreed to, in part because some schools were reticent to include things like brand value and television ratings.

That triggered the series of lawsuits that have dominated ACC headlines for most of the year.

If there is an agreement, this would be a significant reversal of the relationship, which for months seems to have been pointed toward a divorce and a fracture of the ACC significant enough to lead to other members to depart the league.

Right now, there are three different suits that have entangled Clemson, Florida State and the ACC. Clemson and Florida State have each filed suits in their home counties, while the ACC has filed countersuits in Mecklenburg County, where its headquarters are located in North Carolina.

The grant of rights is an agreement that binds the ACC together through the life of its television contract in 2036. It’s meant to be a poison pill of sorts, as a program that leaves the ACC would theoretically have to surrender their media rights to the league for the remainder of the television contract.

Clemson is one of eight founding members of the ACC in 1953, along with Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Wake Forest and Virginia. Maryland is now in the Big Ten and South Carolina is now in the SEC.