Florida Attorney General releases heavily redacted ESPN agreements in lawsuit vs. the ACC

The Florida Attorney General's office has released heavily redacted copies of the Atlantic Coast Conference's ESPN agreement.

The ACC agreed to hand over redacted copies of the agreement to Attorney General Ashley Moody on July 17, ending Moody's lawsuit against the conference over making the documents public record. Moody's lawsuit was separate to the one filed by Florida State, as the school sued the conference over media rights agreements.

While the documents provided little new information, part of the extension terms between ESPN and the ACC's partnership have been released. In court, FSU's legal teams have argued that the contracts do not end in 2036, but actually in 2027 when ESPN has the option to extend the agreement. In the agreements, that claim is borne out on page 164.

The terms of any such extension or ending of the agreement are redacted.

The agreements contain 251 pages of contractual agreements and arrangements, with most of the pages heavily redacted to protect trade secrets. These are the same documents that FSU's legal teams have, however, their documents are unredacted in accordance with an interim protective order issued by Leon County courts.

The full set of redacted documents can be viewed below.

During his ACC media day appearance, conference commissioner Jim Phillips said the conference and the broadcasting network were working on new terms.

Terms for any school leaving the conference are redacted in the conference compositions section, with no new information revealed on what a potential exit from the ACC would look like for either Florida State or Clemson.

The documents 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 in 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 . There has been a motion for a hearing in the ACC's appeal of Cooper's decisions in the Florida appeals court, but no date has been given for that as of now.

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 vs. ACC: Florida Attorney General releases ESPN contracts