Florida State lawsuit: ACC agrees to provide redacted ESPN contracts to Florida AG

The Atlantic Coast Conference has agreed to provide redacted copies of the its media contracts with Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody's office.

This agreement will end Moody's lawsuit against the league , just days before a scheduled July 22 court hearing in Leon County. Ultimately, the documents will be made public but will be redacted to protect what the ACC deems trade secrets.

The documents have been at the heart of disputes between Florida State University, Clemson University and the ACC in court cases across three states : Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina. Both schools have sued the conference over media rights agreements as their athletic programs look to exit the ACC.

In a Wednesday press release, Moody said her office and the ACC's lawyers reached an agreement for the conference to give her office copies of the agreements with the sports cable network ESPN no later than Aug. 1.

"Our office's legal action has resulted in an agreement from the ACC to produce secret media contracts that are at the heart of the legal wrangling between FSU and the ACC," Moody said in a statement. "The conference refused to provide media contracts that detail the impact to FSU if it departs the conference, but now they are rightfully handing over these public records. We will continue to fight for transparency."

The ACC maintains its position that the documents are not public records, and in a statement, the conference says it is "preserving their legal positions" by providing redacted copies to Moody's office.

"The ACC respects the public records laws of states where we have members; however, as a private nonprofit association formed and operated by public and private universities from across the country, we do not believe that our own records are subject to those laws. Both parties, while fully preserving their legal positions, have reached a solution which will include the voluntary production of certain redacted documents by the ACC, and the Attorney General then dismissing its lawsuit. The ACC will not be providing any portions of documents containing trade secrets, which has been its consistent position."

The redacted documents to be provided are the same as the ones given to Florida State's legal teams. The major difference is the school currently has unredacted copies under an interim protective order issued by Tallahassee-based Circuit Judge John C. Cooper, which restricts them from being made public and requires their use only for court proceedings.

The documents to be provided are:

• The initial 2010 multi-media agreement with ESPN

• The 2012 amendment and extension agreement

• Second amendment and extension agreement in 2014

• Amended and restated multi-media agreement in 2016

• ACC-ESPN Network agreement also from 2016

• Letter amendment to amend and restated multi-media agreement from 2021

The ACC and FSU are currently locked into legal battles in both North Carolina and in Leon County, with the case in Leon County continuing after Cooper denied the ACC's motion to dismiss in June .

Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at  LRooney@gannett.com  or on Twitter @__liamroone y

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU lawsuit: ACC to provide redacted copies of ESPN deals to Florida