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Message: [QUOTE="sutomcat, post: 4954461, member: 27"] Tampa Bay article on the lawsuits. Another legal expert who is puzzled at what the FSU legal team is trying to do. [B][URL unfurl="true"]https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2024/01/29/florida-state-acc-lawsuit-grant-of-rights-conference-realignment-fsu-football/[/URL][/B] [I]Years before [URL='https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2024/01/09/florida-state-acc-lawsuit-fsu-conference-realignment/']Florida State and the ACC filed dueling lawsuits[/URL] over the Seminoles’ future in the conference, Mark T. Wilhelm studied a version of the secretive document at the core of this half-a-billion-dollar dispute. It’s called a grant of rights, and he[URL='https://www.troutman.com/a/web/344419/Wilhelm.pdf'] examined its enforceability in the Harvard Law School Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law.[/URL] Wilhelm, a partner who handles mergers and acquisitions at the Philadelphia law firm [URL='https://www.troutman.com/professionals/mark-t-wilhelm.html']Troutman Pepper[/URL], spoke with the Tampa Bay Times recently to share his insight and personal thoughts on the case (still in its infancy). Here are some takeaways:[/I] [HEADING=1][I]If you’re wondering how FSU can escape deals it signed, you’re not alone[/I][/HEADING] [I]“That’s a great question,” Wilhelm said, “and I don’t have a particularly good answer.” Wilhelm explained a few options to try to escape contracts like a grant of rights — where FSU and the other schools granted their TV rights to the ACC, which sold them to ESPN and distributed the money back to the schools. One is that the deal is, essentially, unfair. FSU said it [URL='https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2023/12/22/florida-state-acc-conference-realignment-fsu-football-sec-big-ten-expansion/']would lose out on $572 million[/URL] as part of a “draconian” process to leave the ACC. But Florida State previously agreed to those figures, which could hurt its argument. Another is that the ACC broke the deal’s terms. FSU brings up this one, too, arguing the conference failed to live up to its financial and competitive promises. But if those promises were made elsewhere — like the conference’s mission statement — does that apply to a financial contract? A third option: what looks like a contract isn’t a contract after all.[/I] [HEADING=1][I]Remember this word: considerations[/I][/HEADING] [I]Valid contracts must have three parts: an offer, an acceptance and a consideration. Suppose you offer to buy a neighbor’s old bike for $10. He accepts, and you give him the consideration ($10). That satisfies all three requirements. But Wilhelm said a consideration must be new. It doesn’t work if you borrowed $10 from your neighbor last week, then give him $10 for the bike; your neighbor isn’t getting a new consideration. FSU[URL='https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2023/12/22/florida-state-acc-conference-realignment-fsu-football-sec-big-ten-expansion/'] argues in its complaint[/URL] that it “received no new consideration” by signing the grant of rights. If a court accepts that argument, then there’s no contract. And if there’s no contract, then Florida State could save hundreds of million of dollars on its way out.[/I] [HEADING=1][I]It matters how you slice (and characterize) $572 million[/I][/HEADING] [I]One of the two major chunks, [URL='https://news.fsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/12.22.2023-Final-Complaint-4.pdf']according to FSU[/URL], is a $130 million fee to leave the ACC. The other is $429 million in TV money the conference will withhold until 2036. ...[/I] [/QUOTE]

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