Clemson is prepared to spend nearly $1 million in attorney fees through June 2025 in its ongoing legal battle to potentially leave the Atlantic Coast Conference.
The university has received authorization from the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office to pay four law firms up to $975,000 through June 30, 2025, as the school challenges the ACC’s grant of rights and conference exit fees in court, according to documents obtained by The State on Monday.
The authorizations come as the university and the conference gear up for what’s presumed to be a lengthy court dispute in the dueling lawsuits Clemson vs. ACC, which is playing out in South Carolina, and ACC vs. Clemson, which is playing out in North Carolina.
Clemson is currently challenging the enforceability of the ACC’s grant of rights, a legal document that binds them to the conference through 2036. If a school were to leave the ACC under that agreement, it would owe the conference a roughly $140 million exit fee and, more notably, forfeit the media rights revenue that comes from televising its home games to the conference through 2036.
The total cost of leaving the conference has been ball-parked at $572 million.
Both cases in the Clemson-ACC legal dispute remain active, and one is on hold pending an appeal to a state supreme court that could take 12 to 18 months.
The week before Clemson filed its lawsuit against the ACC, the school had been authorized in mid-March to pay three law firms up to $475,000 combined over the first four months of its legal dispute from March 1 to June 30.
Citing “very complex litigation of significant value,” Clemson requested in early May a second, separate authorization to pay four law firms up to $975,000 combined from July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025. That amounts to one fiscal year, which is the maximum amount of time that can be approved at once for outside counsel.
Clemson, however, is not using any state money for the lawsuit.
“Amounts above the approved South Carolina Attorney General rates will be paid from private funds,” the forms requesting the attorney fee approvals note.
A proviso attached to this year’s budget also prevents Clemson from using any state money to pay conference exit fees, entry fees or legal fees to leave the conference.
“Any outside counsel working with Clemson University is being supported by athletics-generated revenue and private donor funding,” Clemson university spokesman Joe Galbraith said earlier this year.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much money Clemson spent on legal fees between March 1 and June 30 , during which it was authorized to spend up to $475,000.
If the university spent the maximum amount during those first four months, though, this second round of approvals means the university could end up spending up to $1.45 million in legal fees during its first 16 months of litigation.
Clemson initially hired three firms for work on its lawsuit against the ACC: Willson Jones Carter & Baxley out of Greenville; Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough out of Columbia; and Ropes & Gray out of Boston.
In its latest request for authorization, Clemson added in a fourth law firm: Parry Law PLLC out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina to specifically focus on pending litigation in the Tarheel State.
The state attorney general’s office authorized Clemson’s latest request in mid-June.
According to Clemson’s second round of authorizations, the school can pay the Columbia firm up to $500,000; the Boston firm up to $250,000; the Chapel Hill firm up to $150,000; and the Greenville law firm up to $75,000 through next June 30.
Each law firm, according to documents, is being retained to “represent Clemson University in litigation regarding athletics media rights and related agreements.”
A number of lawyers agreed to work at discounted hourly rates.
How Clemson got here
Clemson sued the ACC on March 19 over the conference’s exit fee in an initial step to potentially leave the conference during a new round of college football realignment. Over the past few years, the Tigers have been linked to the Big Ten and Southeast Conference as a potential expansion candidate, primarily because of the success and national relevance of the school’s football program under head coach Dabo Swinney.
A move to another conference would also mean Clemson’s athletic department getting more money on an annual basis via per-school conference payouts. SEC and Big Ten schools are projected to get anywhere from $30 million to $40 million more than ACC schools annually in coming years due to more advantageous TV deals.
In its March 19 lawsuit — filed in Pickens County, South Carolina, where the university is located — Clemson says the ACC’s total exit fee, which has been estimated at $572 million, is “unconscionable and unenforceable.”
The lawsuit claims the ACC has made “erroneous assertions” when it claimed it “irrevocably owns the media rights of member institutions” for home games played through 2036, even if a school ceases to be a member of the conference, and that on top of forfeiting media rights revenue member schools “must pay an exorbitant $140 million penalty to leave the conference.”
The ACC, which is facing a similar lawsuit from Florida State, counter-sued Clemson a day later in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where the conference is headquartered.
Clemson tried to have the ACC’s countersuit in North Carolina thrown out, but a judge denied that request on July 10. Clemson is appealing that decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court, a process that could take 12 to 18 months, according to one university lawyer.
On July 12, a South Carolina judge ruled the original case filed in Pickens County could also continue, which was viewed as a favorable legal ruling for the Tigers.
The conference said in a statement it was “disappointed” in that ruling, which positions Clemson and the ACC to carry out a two-state legal dispute, with parallel lawsuits in North Carolina and South Carolina, for the time being.
During ACC Kickoff last week, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said in a news conference the Clemson and FSU lawsuits were “extremely damaging, disruptive and incredibly harmful” and the ACC will fight them in court “as long as it takes.”
