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Florida State is still struggling with the College Football Playoff’s unprecedented decision to omit the undefeated Seminoles. In hopes of avoiding a similar future result, FSU has reportedly re-opened talks about leaving the ACC.
Conference realignment has overtaken the sport, seeing a number of programs move from league to league this past offseason.
Texas and Oklahoma got the ball rolling with a switch to the SEC. The Big Ten responded by adding UCLA and USC.
With those initial dominos falling, an all-out transformation took place this summer. The PAC 12 was raided as all but two schools left for either the Big XII, B1G, or ACC.
A few Group of Five programs found themselves on the move, too.
Come 2024, college football will look completely different, and we might not be done yet!
ACC powers Clemson and Florida State have expressed unhappiness with the growing revenue disparity in comparison to the Big Ten and SEC. The conference is locked into a media rights deal through 2036 as it was forced to watch others sign massive contracts with major networks.
The ACC did address those frustrations by introducing a new revenue sharing model to reward the league’s top performers as opposed to splitting everything evenly, but that might not be enough.
Florida State is reportedly discussing a departure, once again.
FSU re-opens discussion of leaving ACC
The news comes after the CFP omission, which the Seminoles are reportedly “still struggling” with.
“The most challenging couple weeks of coaching I’ve ever had,” head coach Mike Norvell said about the decision.
The Seminoles finished the year 13-0 with an ACC Championship, becoming the first undefeated Power Five conference champion to get left out of the field.
While an injury to Jordan Travis was cited as the reason for the omission, there are some who believe conference affiliation had something to do with one-loss Alabama getting the nod over FSU.
The narrative of SEC bias quickly overtook social media, which eventually led Attorney General Ashley Moody to open an official investigation into the decision-making process.
The College Football Playoff committee’s selection has given FSU another reason to leave the ACC, though it is worth noting that next year’s field will expand to 12 teams.
The league is clearly viewed as being below the SEC or Big Ten, evidenced by that outcome. Unfortunately for FSU, leaving the ACC would prove costly.
Not only does the conference control media rights revenue through the 2036 season (no matter which league the ‘Noles are playing in), a nine-figure buyout would likely be necessary.
For now, Florida State is probably stuck unless they can find some sort of loophole in the Grant of Rights agreement.