ACC, Maryland reach $31 million settlement in lawsuit

The University of Maryland and Atlantic Coast Conference have reached a $31 million settlement over the school's departure for the Big Ten Conference, it was announced on Friday.

Maryland has agreed that the ACC will keep the sum of $31,361,788 previously withheld in order to resolve the lawsuits, and the ACC has agreed that Maryland will have no obligation to make any other payments to the ACC. In addition, the lawsuits filed in the State of North Carolina and Maryland will be dismissed.

The settlement ends a dispute between the University of Maryland and ACC over a $52 million exit fee that the conference was attempting to force Maryland to pay via a lawsuit. But Maryland felt they weren't obligated to pay that fee for a number of reasons and eventually filed a $151 countersuit, which claimed, among other things, that the ACC was improperly withholding revenue from Maryland. The ACC began withholding revenue payments to Maryland once the school announced their intent to leave and join the Big Ten. In this settlement, it appears the two sides agreed to just let the ACC keep that money and both would walk away from their lawsuits.

"The University of Maryland is proud of our long and storied 61-year association with the Atlantic Coast Conference," said Wallace D. Loh, president of the University of Maryland, in a release from the school. "Today's agreement helps usher in exciting new eras for both the University and the ACC. We wish the conference and our ACC university colleagues well."

"Our student-athletes, coaches, staff, fans and alumni will forever hold dear the memories of six outstanding decades in the Atlantic Coast Conference," said Kevin Anderson, Director of Athletics at the University of Maryland, in the school's release. "Today marks the next chapter in the history of Maryland Athletics, and we look forward to creating new memories in the decades to come."

We'll have more on this and what it means for Maryland moving forward in the coming days.