Former Clemson AD Dan Radakovich says he's surprised in lawsuit vs. ACC, unsure of case's success

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Former Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich weighed in on Clemson's lawsuit with the ACC recently, citing the strength of the ACC and commitment from his school Miami within the league.

Clemson has challenged the ACC's $140 million withdrawal fee and the league's ability to hold on to a school's media rights upon leaving.

On the last point, Radakovich cited Texas and Oklahoma staying within the Big 12's Grant of Rights agreement until this upcoming season as evidence Clemson and Florida State cases may fall short.

"There was no way in those early years that they were able to get out of the Grant of Rights,” Radakovich said on local Miami radio, as transcribed by CaneSport. 'I’m sure they had great attorneys – they looked at it and decided there was no way to get out of it, so they stayed within their league until it was time they could get out.

"I’m not sure Clemson or Florida State will be able to change that."

Florida State's initial assessment in December on the impact of the ACC Grant of Rights and withdrawal fee on a departing team was $572 million. The league's deal with ESPN, which was re-signed by conference schools in 2016 with the advent of the ACC Network, is set to go through 2036.

Part of the growing dissent within the league is the revenue disparity from the ACC to the SEC and Big Ten Conferences, but Radakovich says Miami is still well-positioned.

"Those dollar differentials aren’t going to change the path of how we move forward as an organization," Radakovich said. "It’s not going to change from how we are looking to build our football, basketball program. We are a university that is moving forward and on the rise both academically and through other areas."

Overall, Radakovich agreed with a question on the idea that he was surprised to see Clemson's lawsuit with the ACC come down now.

"I really didn’t see it (Clemson filing a suit to leave the ACC) coming at this point in time," Radakovich said. "Almost every school in the ACC has gone to the home office and looked at the documents and just made sure they understood all the different things associated with the grant of rights, television contracts. I was a little surprised that Clemson did that at this point in time. But each of these circumstances are very, very local. Whether you have constituencies on campus making a little more noise that we don’t want to be in a circumstance where we are (at a) disadvantage. I guess Clemson looked at that, said this is an important time to lessen exit fees or (get rid of) the grant of rights. Same thing with Florida State.

"Here at the University of Miami we are incredibly solid with the ACC...The ACC is still one of the Power Four conferences that are part of the college football playoff, a very active and vibrant member of that Power Four. We are very proud to be a part of that, a leading brand within in the ACC and will continue to be a part of it."

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