FSU’s ‘barking’ no excellent for ACC, states UNC ADVERTISEMENT

• Andrea Adelson, ESPN

  • Elder WriterAug 3, 2023, 06:52 PM ET Close ACC press reporter.
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2010.
  • Graduate of the University of Florida.North Carolina

athletic director Bubba Cunningham took exception Thursday to the way Florida State has publicized its desire to leave the ACC.In an interview with 99.9 The Fan in Raleigh, N.C., Cunningham reacted to remarks Florida State president Richard McCullough made throughout a board of trustees meeting Wednesday. McCullough told the board that the Seminoles would “very seriously” consider leaving the ACC unless there is a transformation to the conference’s income circulation design.

“I do not believe it’s good for our league for them to be out there barking like that,” Cunningham said on “The Adam Gold Show.” “I ‘d rather see them be an excellent member of the league, support the league and if they have to decide, then so be it. Spend for the exit charge, wait for your grant of rights that you have actually provided and then in 2036, when those rights go back to you, do whatever you desire.”

The ACC has a television agreement with ESPN that goes through 2036.

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1 Associated Any school that wishes to leave the conference would need to pay a $120 million exit charge, in addition to figuring out a way out of the grant of rights– which goes through 2036 and provides the ACC control over each school’s media rights.Cunningham highlighted

this point: Every school in the league willingly participated in the grant of rights arrangement when it signed the deal in 2016. Earlier in the week, Florida

State Board of Trustees chair Peter Collins informed Warchant.com that the grant of rights”will not be the document that keeps us from doing something about it.”Cunningham countered that in his interview on 99.9 The Fan.”When you have a general counsel and the university president and the board of trustees states I’m a member of this conference and you sign a file that states I’m approving my rights to you and you have my authority to go negotiate my rights to a network and the league does that on your behalf, I’m not sure how you can simply say,’Simply kidding. I didn’t like the deal that was struck and now I wish to leave it,'” he said.”Any contract, it binds you to what you agreed to on the front end. So I’m scratching my head, questioning what are you talking about. “As for fixing the ongoing question about creating income and distributing it differently to try and close a growing gap with the SEC and Big Ten, Cunningham included:”Everybody wants to have more money and everybody want to win more. I do not think you have to have the most cash to win the most games, and I think we have actually demonstrated that for many years.”North Carolina, like nearly every school in the ACC, has had its legal counsel examine the grant of

rights document and had discussions about what to do need to another wave of conference realignment happen. To that end, Cunningham was not positive that the ACC would last in its existing kind.” A lot of schools, a great deal of people are going to need to make choices about what their future appear like,” he stated.

“I do not see this setup lasting in perpetuity.”