Florida State’s days in the ACC could be numbered.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger, the school’s Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet Friday to explore 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 in a blog post.
The grant-of-rights agreement inked by the league and its members with ESPN in 2016 is proving to be a significant impediment for any school looking to leave the ACC.
It was a 20-year arrangement that now appears out of date, with the Big Ten and SEC signing far more lucrative television rights contracts. It lasts until the 2035-36 academic year, and Dellenger said Florida State may have to pay an additional $500 million on top of a $120 million exit fee if it leaves with so many years left on the contract.
Even in today’s collegiate football world, that is a scary sum of money, but Dellenger also stated that Florida State might seek a “declaratory judgment action” from a judge, declaring that it is not bound by the grant-of-rights agreement.
It might serve as a model for other institutions, as Andrea Adelson of ESPN reported on Tuesday that Clemson, North Carolina, Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia, and NC State have all discussed a possible withdrawal in the past year.
The fact that so many schools are considering leaving the ACC reflects a new reality in college football, in which the SEC and Big Ten are distancing themselves as the haves and have-nots.
Not only do the schools in those leagues have a significant financial edge due to their television rights deals, but the competitive aspect of the conferences will be highlighted when Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC and Oregon, Washington, USC, and UCLA enter the Big Ten.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see the leagues take up the majority of the at-large berths in the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, which is obviously a sore spot for Florida State given it recently went undefeated and was left
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