Like disgruntled NBA superstars, Clemson and FSU trying to kick and scream their way out of ACC | Commentary

Running off at the typewriter …

How are FSU and Clemson like James Harden and Kawhi Leonard?

Because like disgruntled NBA superstars who — even though they’re under contract — are able to create so much controversy and consternation that their teams succumb and get rid of them, FSU and Clemson are hoping they, too, can use the legal system to kick and scream their way out of the ACC.

First, it was FSU back in December,  and now it’s Clemson filing a lawsuit in an attempt to get out of a grant-of-rights contract that binds them to the ACC for 12 more years. The Tigers filed their lawsuit earlier this week and, within the legal crying and caterwauling, exclaimed that the ACC’s grant-of-rights contract and exit fees were “unconscionable” and “unenforceable.”

Question for Clemson (and FSU): Were the grant-of-rights contract and withdrawal fees “unconscionable” and “unenforceable” when you happily and voluntarily signed the contract (twice) in 2013 and 2016?

Don’t get me wrong. I get the financial reasons why Clemson and FSU both want out of the ACC, and I’d do the same thing if I were running their athletic departments. After all, it’s been well reported that the SEC and Big Ten annual media deals will soon be worth about $30-$40 million per team more than the ACC’s media deal.

In addition, Clemson’s lawsuit came on the same day that the College Football Playoff and ESPN announced a new six-year, $7.8 billion contract that further accentuated the financial gap between the SEC/Big Ten and the ACC. Annually, each SEC and Big Ten team will earn more than $21 million under the new playoff agreement while ACC teams will earn more than $13 million. That’s right: Vanderbilt and Indiana will get more playoff money than FSU and Clemson.

If you add up this TV revenue discrepancy over a 10-year period, ACC teams like FSU will make about $400 million less than SEC teams like Florida.

But it’s not like the ACC forced Clemson and FSU to sign the media-rights deal and the grant-of-rights agreement.  At the time, every ACC school signed those contracts voluntarily and were absolutely giddy that the ACC was getting its own TV network and a lucrative long-term deal with ESPN. However, when the market changed and TV rights fees rapidly escalated, the ACC was stuck with a protracted subpar media deal until 2036.

More power to FSU and Clemson if they can somehow use the legal system to extricate themselves from the ACC’s grant of rights, but it sure sounds like they are reneging on a signed contract now that it’s gone bad.

Like those of us who happily (and then sadly) bought Pets.com stock during the dot-com bubble, Clemson and FSU went all in on ACC stock and now they’re losing their shirts.

Considering member schools are on the hook for more than $500 million if they want to leave the conference, the strategy seems to be to create so much havoc and upheaval that the ACC will acquiesce and allow the Seminoles and the Tigers to leave with a reduced exit fee.

Good luck.

While kicking and screaming and creating chaos may work for disgruntled NBA superstars who want to leave town, I’m not so sure FSU and Clemson throwing a legal temper tantrum is going to result in a slam-dunk exit from the ACC. …

Short stuff: If you ask Florida Gators coach Billy Napier, I bet he would trade all of that  SEC TV money we just talked about for an ACC football schedule. The Gators not only play arguably the toughest schedule in the country this season, they found out Wednesday that they will play the exact same SEC schedule in 2025 — except that seven conference games (Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M) will be flipped home and away while Georgia remains in Jacksonville. When you throw in FSU and Miami as non-conference opponents both years (with UCF also on the non-conference schedule this season), you can see the Kilimanjaro-like climb Napier faces to stay employed. … Shame on basketball programs such as St. John’s, Indiana, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Ole Miss, etc. who didn’t make the NCAA tournament and then turned down bids to play in the NIT. What a bunch of big, fat, whiny, babies. Just because you weren’t good enough to get into the NCAA tournament, you’re gonna take your ball and go home? Winners compete. Losers pack up their monopoly money and bail. …

It was announced earlier this week that new Alabama football coach Kalen DeBoer was given an 8-year contract that averages about $11 million annually and is nearly fully guaranteed with a minimum buyout if he wants to leave. Coaching super agent Jimmy Sexton strikes again! This is just another example of how college ADs cower in the fetal position whenever Sexton sits down at the bargaining table. Hypothetically, if Alabama went 0-12 this season and wanted to fire DeBoer after one year, the school would owe him $70 million. However, if wanted to leave for another job after this season, he would owe the school just $5 million. If I’ve written it once, I’ve written it a million times: How screwed up is it that college athletic departments nationwide are shaking down fans and boosters for NIL money to pay players but at the same time they think nothing of handing out obscenely one-sided contracts that guarantee a coach nearly $100 million? …

Did you see where erstwhile Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh had a garage sale at his house in Ann Arbor this week amid his relocation to L.A.? No word yet on how much Connor Stalions’ marching orders and surveillance equipment sold for. … Not only are the Orlando Magic having a breakout season on the court, the organization itself was just named among “Best Places to Work in Sports in 2023” by the Sports Business Journal. Kudos to the Magic, who were the only professional franchise in four major sports to be on SBJ’s list. The Magic obviously do right by their employees and even former employees (see recent Shaq jersey retirement even after he bolted and wrecked the franchise all those years ago).  … Professor Pigskin’s Free Agency Grades: Tampa Bay Bucs (A+), Jacksonville Jaguars (B+), Miami Dolphins (C-). … Question: Why did the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee put cultural phenomenon Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes in the toughest bracket instead of the easiest one? If the Hawkeyes get eliminated before the Final Four, this will go down as the worst business decision since Pepsi Crystal. … I’m not saying NASCAR had a rubber-shredding fiasco at Bristol last weekend, but the last time I saw such shoddy tires was when I tried to take the corner too fast going from Office Supplies into Home Decor with my wobbly-wheeled Walmart shopping cart last week. …

Last word: With Thursday being actor Matthew Broderick’s birthday, let us all remember to live by the philosophy of the great Ferris Bueller: “The question isn’t: ‘What are we going to do?’ The question is: ‘What aren’t we going to do?’ “

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen