Clemson has filed suit against the ACC in Pickens County, S.C., arguing that its so-called “grant of rights” to broadcasting content ceases to exist if the Tigers leave the conference and that that the league’s $140 million exit fee is “exorbitant.”

Clemson is the second school to sue the ACC in the last four months, after Florida State did so for similar reasons in December. The ACC then countersued FSU.

The ACC’s grant of rights contract runs through 2036, meaning any member school that leaves the league before then could not have its home games broadcast through a different conference’s media deal. Clemson’s lawsuit called the conference’s assertions “erroneous,” and that they hinder the school’s “ability to meaningfully explore its options regarding conference membership, to negotiate alternative revenue-sharing proposals among ACC members, and to obtain full value for its future media rights.”

Like the SEC, the ACC’s broadcast deal is with ESPN, but that is where the comparisons end. The SEC’s new 10-year deal with ESPN begins this fall and pays each school upwards of $50 million; the ACC’s deal — locked in for another 12 years — is worth “only” $23 million to each school. (The Big Ten’s media rights deal with Fox, NBC and CBS — which also begins this year — is worth upwards of $65 to each member school).

The lawsuit comes at a tumultuous time for college athletics, as conferences continue to re-align without regard to geographical consistency. UCLA, USC, Washington and Oregon are now members of the Big Ten, while Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah are in the Big 12 and California, Stanford and SMU have joined the ACC.

Schools such as Florida State, Clemson and other ACC members have been unable to explore jumping to a difference conference because of the league’s grant of rights deal. The Clemson lawsuit called enforcing that contract “fatally detrimental” to the school.

“The ACC’s actions interfere with Clemson’s free exercise of its rights and are fatally detrimental to Clemson’s efforts to ensure that its athletic programs can continue to compete at the highest level, which is critically important to Clemson even beyond athletics,” the lawsuit reads, via On3 Sports.