FSU lawsuit over $140 million exit fee to leave ACC will continue to haunt Atlantic coast as more teams could follow Seminoles' trajectory

The story of the Atlantic Coast Conference could be told in the courtroom as they are returning after the initial hearing two months ago between themselves and the Florida State Seminoles. The two sides are locked up in a multistate battle regarding FSU attempting to leave the ACC.

With the ruling being significant either way that the courts decide to rule this, it could create chaos if the Seminoles can leave the conference.

The ACC currently consists of 15 members before adding the Stanford Cardinal, SMU Mustangs, and California Golden Bears ahead of the upcoming college football season. The current exit fee for a team to leave the ACC would be $140 million but the Grant of Rights makes the figure $574 million.

If the courts rule to allow the exit fee and the Grant of Rights to be waived, this could lead to the demise of the ACC as we know it.

Multiple schools could follow the footsteps and the game plan that the Seminoles laid out and use this ruling to leave the conference and become "free agents." It will be interesting as whichever way the courts decide to rule this case can alter how college sports go forever.

What teams would follow the Florida State Seminoles in leaving the ACC?

While it is unclear which teams officially have issues with the ACC, two schools are in legal battles with the conference: the Florida State Seminoles and the Clemson Tigers. If there is no Grant of Rights, which would make the exit fee more than half a billion dollars, the schools would likely enter conference realignment and want to join the Big Ten, Big 12 or SEC.

While those two schools definitely leave if the opportunity arises, there are fringe schools that can decide to do the same. The current media rights contract for the ACC is the lowest out of any of the power conferences and that is a significant inflow of revenue for the schools. It also matters which conferences would want to poach the ACC teams.

This is speculated to be one of the reasons the conference is adding three teams this fall, as it is believed that their media rights partner, ESPN, will be able to renegotiate the contract if the conference falls below 12 teams. It will be intriguing to follow this story as it continues after seeing the Pac-12 Conference collapse.