Florida State asks for an extra board meeting because the future is not clear.
The meeting was announced on Thursday, almost three weeks after the Seminoles became the inaugural undefeated Power 5 champion to be left out of the College Football Playoff.
This decision angered university officials, the board, and the athletic department, who had been critical of the ACC for a year for a number of reasons, such as its growing revenue gap with other conferences, the way it distributes revenue, and its place in the college football landscape.
The board has to approve of everything the school does, even if it’s just questioning the gift of rights. If an ACC school wants to leave the league, they would have to fight the gift of rights.
All ACC members, including Florida State, signed a grant of rights with the league that lasts until 2036, which is the length of its TV deal with ESPN.
This gives the league control over its advertising rights, such as TV revenue and home game broadcasts for all sports.
Also, a school that wants to depart from the ACC would be required to pay an exit fee equal to three times the league’s running budget, which is about $120 million.
No one has ever used the law to question the grant of rights. ACC officials have said that the grant of rights is “ironclad” in the past and are sure that the paper is strong. But Florida State’s lawyer looked it over at the league center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
If Florida State chooses to fight the grant in rights, it won’t leave the league right away because the process takes time. There is also a big chance of challenging the rights award.
Since NCAA realignment began again at the summer of 2021, when the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma, almost every ACC school has looked into the gift of rights. The next summer, USC and UCLA joined the Big Ten.
Changes like those shocked college football, but they also made the ACC and schools in the league more aware of the fact that they were losing money and importance.
In February, Florida State’s sports director Michael Miller told the school’s board of trustees that the school would be losing $30 million a year to SEC and Big Ten schools when their new TV contracts started. This was the first sign that the Seminoles were unhappy with the ACC.
In May, it came out that Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia Tech, and NC State—seven ACC schools—had talked about the gift of rights and finding a way to move forward.
The ACC eventually changed how it distributed revenue, in large part because Florida State pushed for it.
However, an August meeting of the FSU board of trustees in Tallahassee made it clearer how unhappy the school had become as another round of realignments changed its conference affiliations.
Richard McCullough, the head of the university, made it clear that the school would “very seriously” think about leaving the league. Someone from the ACC told ESPN in 2022, “There would be nothing short of a court battle, I can tell you that.”
Peter Collins, the head of the board, made it clear that the grant of rights “will not be a paper that keeps us from taking action.” This came as board member after board member pushed the school to make a plan for its long-term future.
It wasn’t until August that McCullough told ESPN that he wasn’t “that optimistic that we’ll be able to stay.” We’ll have to do something at some point.
Reports say that the Florida State University Board in Trustees has set a virtual meeting for 10 a.m. ET on Friday.
There are no shocks here; Florida State will keep thinking about their place in the ACC and trying to find ways to leave the league for better things.
Because FSU was already unhappy with the league, the Seminoles felt even more sure after being kicked out of the College Football Playoff.
Because they were 13-0 and unbeaten in the ACC and still didn’t make the playoffs, these wins didn’t help.