Florida State renews discussions regarding long-term ACC future following CFP snub: report

Florida State being left out of the College Football Playoff could have ramifications beyond the football field. 

FSU has “renewed in-depth discussions about its long-term future in the ACC” following the Seminoles’ snub from the CFP, according to ESPN. 

While there have been renewed discussions that are expected to be formally discussed soon, the Seminoles are merely “weighing options” and do not have a plan to leave the ACC in the “near term,” per the report. 

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In August, Florida State President Richard McCullough said the Seminoles would have to consider leaving the ACC without a change to the revenue model. 

“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 were a major change in the revenue distribution within the conference. That has not happened. Those discussions are ongoing at all times,” McCullough said at a board of trustees meeting in August, per ESPN. 

“FSU helps to drive value and will drive value for any partner, but we have spent a year trying to understand how we might fix the issue. There are no easy fixes to this challenge, but a group of us have spent literally a year. We’ve explored every possible option that you can imagine. The issue at hand is what can we do to allow ourselves to be competitive in football and get what I think is the revenue we deserve?

“This continues to be a very difficult issue. There’s a lot going on in the world of conference realignment. 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.”

To leave the ACC early, a school would have to pay three times its annual revenue and figure out the grant in media rights with the conference to broadcast future games. 

Conference realignment took over college football in the summer as the Pac-12 completely fell apart. 

Oregon and Washington announced that they would join UCLA and USC in the Big Ten starting in 2024, while Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah would depart the conference for the Big 12. 

Stanford and Cal were the last to leave, announcing in early September that they would join the ACC.