Florida State officials contemplate break from ACC: 'Not a matter of if ... but how and when,' trustee says

CBS Sports ^ | August 2, 2023 | Dean Straka

[C19fan]

While the Big Ten and SEC both inked major media rights contracts in the last couple of years, the ACC remains locked in a deal with ESPN that doesn't expire in 2036. That has some of the conference's bigger brands feeling antsy as they watch many of the sport's top programs continue to separate themselves financially. During a board of trustees meeting Wednesday, Florida State president Richard McCullough lamented on the gap in revenue projections between ACC schools and the country's top two conferences.

[C19fan]

Nobody pointed a gun to Florida State's head and made them sign a long-term grant of rights deal that is turning out to be a poor decision. Everything I have read or heard is the grant of rights is as solid a legal contract as there can be. Florida State will pay hundreds of millions of dollars if they break that contract. The only scenario I heard Florida State can break away is to join a coalition of the unwilling and dissolve the ACC. Florida State is acting like a toddler holding their breath until their faces turn blue.

[FLNittany]

Should they land in the B1G (which I still doubt), they stand to make as much as $80M/year (assuming the latest B1G tv deal gets increased). Right now they are making $36M/year.

I think they’ll go to the SEC unless the SEC doesn’t want them (a real possibility, given they already own most of FL).

ESPN is the one that is going to take it in the shorts here (ACC Network).

[Ciaphas Cain]

The ACC is way too big. I much rather preferred it when it was only eight teams.

[FLNittany]

It’s only going to get smaller. UVA and UNC would go to the B1G tomorrow if invited. Clemson, Miami, and FSU would go to the SEC tomorrow if invited.

[ConservativeInPA]

I much rather preferred it when it was only eight teams.

Years ago when all this expansion stuff began, I envisioned four or five conferences with 16 teams each, split into two divisions, with conference championships. The winners of the conference championships would go to a playoff for the national championship. It’s really easy to do with four conferences. I don’t like the media or any group of people determining which team goes to a playoff. Winning, and only winning, sends a team forward. The remaining teams that don’t fit into the 16-team conferences get to form a league between FBS and FCS. Perhaps there is some method of teams moving between leagues based on winning and losing, but that doesn’t work with some conferences as they are formed today. For instance, the Big Ten is just as much about academic (research) relationships between schools as it is sports.

That entire take comes from my bias from being a former NCAA swimmer, where winning moves an individual further in a multi-team meet with prelims and finals. It doesn’t work that way for nationals though. It’s individuals that move a team to nationals and it is possible for only one swimmer on a team to qualify for nationals. There’s no chance of his team winning a national title though.

Backing up a bit with the academic research aspects of conferences. That’s just as much about money as the conference TV contracts for sports. Strangely, or maybe not so, I am dead set against the current source of funding for research grants - taxpayers. That’s forced. Taxpayers have no say in grant funding. It’s not that I am against research or even government funding of research. I am simply against the vast majority of research projects that are funded because it’s for absolute junk science or some Marxist identity bull crap.

All this money leads to excess and lost perspective. That includes the money in college sports. So basically, I don’t give a damn about college football anymore. College football is just a minor league for the NFL, which I absolutely cannot stand because it has been ruined by politics. I want sports and politics completely separated. I want perspective between academics and sports in college. Most college football players have no business being in college from an academic perspective.

So all of that leads me to be dismayed about college football and I don’t see any movement towards correcting this, including Clemson and FSU moving to the Big Ten or SEC.

[Burma Jones]

Translation: “PLEASE take us, SEC!”

[dfwgator]

Just get rid of conferences, and put all the teams in divisions, related to geography.

It becomes more of a farce with each passing day.

[Tell It Right]

Go to a college football game in the south and you're surrounded by people who still love the country, and still get teary eyed during the Star Spangled Banner. This is where the FJB chants started.

I still get chills when Auburn's band or Georgia's band plays the Battle Hymn of the Republic (Glory Glory Halleluiah) ... and I'm a Bama fan.

[Tell It Right]

Translation: “PLEASE take us, SEC!”

Either that or FSU is using their clout as one of the big boys in the ACC to tell ESPN that their contract with the ACC needs to pay out more money.

[srmanuel]

IMO, as UF Gator Alum and Fan, give the SEC already has a team in the State of Florida, given Florida’s TV market is secondly only to Texas in SEC, I can’t see Clemson, FSU or Miami, getting invited to the SEC, they don’t bring any new TV markets or much of anything to the SEC.

FSU and Clemson would be logical fits for the SEC from a football perspective, as I said Florida with their large TV market already has a team and South Carolina a much smaller market already has a team.

The two teams in the ACC sitting in the best position are NC and Virginia, both bring good TV markets to the SEC and are competitive enough in Football to compete and are significantly above most SEC schools in other sports like basketball.

FSU is not winning any friends inside of the ACC by openly saying they want to leave unless the revenue situation improves and due to FSU’s brand deserve more money than other ACC schools, it would be like Alabama and Georgia demanding more money from the SEC because of their dominance, compared to a school like Vanderbilt.

One of the strongest points of the SEC is the equal sharing of media rights deals.

[EEGator]

Ruining college sports.

[EEGator]

Alabama and Georgia graduates work for Vanderbilt grads…

[FLNittany]

"One of the strongest points of the SEC is the equal sharing of media rights deals."

I think this is another thing that will change w/ the next tv contracts (2030-ish). Northwestern and Vandy don't deserve the same money as tOSU or Alabama. It's nice that they get it, but they don't deserve it. Fees should be tied to viewership numbers for individual teams.

[dfwgator]

When it all shakes out, there might be 50-60 Division I teams, the rest will drop football, as it’s too expensive, without having the revenues to cover the costs.

[FLNittany]

2022 tv viewship per game by team rankings - only surprise to me here is TCU:

1) Ohio State — 5.80M
2) Alabama — 5.11M
3) Michigan — 4.37M
4) Tennessee — 4.13M
5) Georgia — 3.50M
6) Notre Dame — 3.30M
7) LSU — 3.22M
8) Texas — 3.06M
9) Penn State — 3.05M
10) Clemson — 2.59M
11) Florida — 2.57M
12) Oregon — 2.21M
13) TCU — 2.20M
14) Southern Cal — 2.07M
15) Florida State — 2.03M
16) Nebraska — 1.98M
17) Michigan State — 1.91M
18) Texas A&M — 1.87M
19) Maryland — 1.864M
20) Auburn — 1.863M

[ConservativeInPA]

I get all that. I’m a Penn State fan and I used to have season tickets back in the early 90’s and have gone to individual games until several years ago. PSU fans at games, and more importantly to me, tailgates parties, are mostly decent hardworking Americans that are quite patriotic and are very tuned into many game day traditions that the vast majority of non-game going fans have no understanding. It’s really two different worlds. It’s the big money world encroaching on traditions that ruins college football for me. It’s the woke encroaching on sports that ruins college football for me. And it’s the character of college football players that ruins college football for me. I’d be much happier if players just kept their mouths shut, stayed out of legal trouble, and were academically motivated instead of motivated to get endorsement contracts. It’s about team, not individuals.

I really love sports, particularly football. I tend now to enjoy high school football on Friday nights more than college and certainly pro football.

[Tell It Right]

Here in Alabama us Bama fans gave Nick Saban and the Bama players plenty of boos, empty seats, and promises to quit paying for season tickets after they did a Bash Lighter Melanins march (my name for the true meaning of BLM). There aren't enough words to describe how important college football is to Alabamians, yet we were willing to give that up even with Bama doing well (including that year, 2020, in which Bama won another natty).

Saban, the players, and the school got the point. Since then all they've said are a couple of times when they said All Lives Matter.

[FLNittany]

Another thing I find interesting is that you hear nothing from Oregon or Washington about the Big Twelve, which leads me to believe they already have a verbal deal in place with the B1G.

[dfwgator]

I think the Conferences will go to the way of the Dodo Bird fairly soon, as the big programs decide to create their own organization and negotiate their own TV deal.

Not unlike what happened with English soccer in the 1990s, when the big teams broke away from the FA and created The Premier League.

[1Old Pro]

I think the Conferences will go to the way of the Dodo Bird fairly soon, as the big programs decide to create their own organization and negotiate their own TV deal.

Show me the money, players want more, colleges want more, tired of the "leagues" running things. Kinda like the LIV.