Over the past eight months, one of the most contentious contracts in sports has been the “ESPN Agreement”. But very few people have really seen it.
Judge John C. Cooper in Leon County has formally directed the Atlantic Coast Conference to provide six documents, including the “ESPN Agreement,” to Florida State University’s legal counsel only. Together, FSU and the ACC made the request to inspect these records for both parties. The league has seven days to provide these records. The documents will be returned or destroyed in 60 days, but FSU is not allowed to reveal their contents to the public. They will not be censored.
“This Order is to treat the ESPN Agreements as confidential in their entirety until this Court has had an opportunity to consider the parties’ respective positions about which provisions of the ESPN Agreement are due protection and to determine the scope and extent of those protections,” the arrangement’s proposal read.
