Trustee: âItâs a matter of how and whenâ FSU leaves ACC
Florida State on Wednesday became the latest college football power to express discontent with its current conference affiliation.
In a hastily called board meeting, several school officials and trustees lamented the ACC’s broadcast deal with ESPN. FSU has been a member of the ACC since the early 1990s, but that might be a long-term arrangement if Wednesday’s meeting is any indication.
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“We of course are not satisfied with our current situation,” FSU president Richard McCullough said during the meeting, via Tallahassee.com. “We love the ACC. We love our partners at ESPN. Our goal would be to continue to stay in the ACC but staying in the ACC under the current situation is hard for us to figure out how we remain competitive unless there was a major change in the revenue distribution within the conference in the ACC conference itself.”
FSU trustee Drew Weatherford, a former Seminoles quarterback, was less diplomatic.
“It’s not a matter of if we leave [the ACC], in my opinion,” Weatherford said. “It’s a matter of how and when we leave. Not everyone may agree with that, but I feel really strongly about it.”
How easy it would be for Florida State to extricate itself from the ACC is the main question. ESPN holds the grant of rights for current conference members until 2036, meaning it would be difficult for the Seminoles to join another conference without paying a serious financial penalty.
It’s also debatable where Florida State would go if it left the ACC. The Seminoles declined a chance to join the SEC in the early 1990s, and with Florida already in that league, Tallahassee is not considered a priority TV market.
ACC schools are expected to make $30 million each off the current TV deal, which is well below what members of the Big Ten ($58 million), SEC ($49 million) and Big 12 ($45 million) earned last year.