SI article on FSU's exit attempt

Dec 28, 2023, 11:36 AM

https://www.si.com/college/2023/12/27/florida-state-acc-exit-lawsuit-college-sports-tv-money?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=campaign_8645253&hashed_email=1c5b3b041b735c0fa454c636761c930fb88039f29e0e431bf172fcac7ab224e3&lctg=181237870

Excerpt (article is longer)...

The destruction of much of what made college athletics great in the first place has gone up-tempo. Conferences are collapsing, regionality is a joke, Olympic sports are in peril, the academic underpinning of higher education is endangered by the increasingly real prospect of unlimited transfers. It might soon be time to kick football off-campus, making it a fully professional sport. License out nicknames, school colors and other trappings associated with the universities, rent the stadiums on Saturdays and practice facilities during the week, but otherwise the players and coaches would have nothing to do with actual college.

Sounds charming, doesn’t it?

None of this is to say Florida State is committing the original sin here. It’s merely the latest example. Texas and Oklahoma began detonating the landscape in 2021, USC and UCLA followed in ’22, then the rest of the Pac-12 schools fled for their own money grabs this year. With a growing revenue gap between the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten and everyone else, the ACC is the next vulnerable target in the power consolidation game.

The thing that pushes this particular grab for cash over the top is the ACC’s grant of rights agreement—signed by Florida State in 2016—that theoretically binds the league’s members together until 2036. But honoring a contract is for suckers. The school wants out at what could be a staggering loss of revenue—at least $350 million according to some estimates, perhaps up to $500 million—with no clear landing place. It is one of the most brazen power plays in college sports history and it could trigger the most upheaval in college sports history.

It could set in motion the annihilation of the ACC, or at least a vast diminishing of the conference, because if FSU pulls this off then others will follow. Clemson has been considered “very connected” to FSU, per a well-placed ACC source earlier this year. Miami would be the third football-first ACC school that could bail. And all of that could free up North Carolina and Virginia, which have been considered the two most desirable ACC properties for both the SEC and Big Ten. They would open up new TV markets in new states while keeping the SEC geographically contiguous, and their academic cachet could be valuable (no, really).

Does the SEC want Florida State? Initial indications are no. There is resistance within the league and it stands to reason that ESPN—which is the media hub for both the SEC and ACC—would be opposed to the destruction of a league it has under contract for 13 more years at an advantageous rate. But if it comes down to a choice between losing the Noles to the Big Ten or taking them, the SEC’s stance might change.

The hard-charging, already-bloated Big 12—which will have 16 members starting next year—presumably would take anyone that adds football value. The Seminoles, Tigers and (to a lesser extent) Hurricanes would do that.

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Agreed. The Big 12 has no Alpha programs to sell. They lost the 2 they had to the SEC. Sure there will be some good football product with that many programs and some decent history with some, but it's just a glorified AAC today - that's it.

FSU, Miami, and Clemson are 3 Alpha programs that the ACC still has in its pocket, plus a 1/2 in Notre Dame? The B1G has what, 5? OSU, Michigan, Penn State, and now USC and I guess Oregon? The SEC? Bama, UGA, LSU, TX, OK, and UF? 6? Everybody else is riding coattails.

It's been frustrating to say the least to see how the ACC squandered the potential it had in its grasp. The misguided attempts at adding TV markets as a growth element aside, the league essentially chose to sideline many potentially compelling games from there with the idiotic division alignments it forced on everyone. Doing away with divisions to boost this frequency has come about way too late in the process.

SI article on FSU's exit attempt

Re: SI article on FSU's exit attempt

Re: SI article on FSU's exit attempt

I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

Re: I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

Re: I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

Re: I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

Fair enough I can see that***

Re: I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

Re: I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

As for good schools in the Big 12

Re: As for good schools in the Big 12

You make good points I have to say ***

Re: As for good schools in the Big 12

Re: I will say this, I respect Yormack a ton! He rescued the Big 12!

If the Big 16 and ACC 16 merged, they would have leverage

Re: If the Big 16 and ACC 16 merged, they would have leverage

FBS is restructuring into 2 or 4 superconferences.

Re: FBS is restructuring into 2 or 4 superconferences.

Its not the same. Key being new conferences.***

Re: SI article on FSU's exit attempt

Fingers crossed we head to the SEC!

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