Florida State's days in the ACC may be numbered.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, the school's Board of Trustees is expected to meet Friday and discuss whether it will eventually leave the conference. "The result of the meeting could produce a formal legal filing in what many describe as the first step to achieving an exit from the ACC's binding grant-of-rights agreement," Dellenger wrote.
That grant-of-rights agreement the league and its members signed with ESPN in 2016 is turning into quite the obstacle for any school that wants to leave the ACC.
It was a 20-year agreement that now seems out of date after the Big Ten and SEC signed much more lucrative media rights contracts. It runs through the 2035-36 academic year, and Dellenger noted Florida State may have to pay an estimated $500 million on top of a $120 million exit fee if it did leave with so many years remaining on the deal in place.
That is a daunting amount of money even in today's college football landscape, although Dellenger also reported Florida State could seek a "declaratory judgment action" from a judge who would declare it is not bound to the grant-of-rights agreement.
It could create a blueprint for other schools as well, as Andrea Adelson of ESPN reported on Tuesday that Clemson, North Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia and NC State have also at least discussed a potential exit during the last year.
So many schools at least considering a way out of the ACC reflects the changing reality of college football in which the SEC and Big Ten are separating themselves as the haves versus the have-nots.
Not only do the schools within those leagues have a massive financial advantage with their media rights deals, but the competitive nature of the conferences will also be all the more notable when Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC, and Oregon, Washington, USC and UCLA join the Big Ten.
It wouldn't be a surprise to see the conferences take up the majority of the at-large spots in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, which is surely a sore spot for Florida State after it just went undefeated and was left out of this year's four-team field.
Adelson noted discussions about leaving the ACC "reignited following the Seminoles' omission," while Dellenger said missing the CFP "rocked those in Tallahassee and accelerated the school's planned exit strategy."
Perhaps it was a last-straw situation, although the idea has been on the forefront of discussions since Florida State President Richard McCullough said in August, "My current assessment of the situation after very deep analysis is I believe FSU will have to at some point consider very seriously leaving the ACC unless there were a radical change to the revenue distribution."
The upcoming meeting could be an important step in that process.
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December 21, 2023 at 09:26PM
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Report: FSU Expected to Start Process of ACC Exit amid College Football Playoff Snub - Bleacher Report
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