Florida State: The ACC Should Fear Florida State's Threat to Leave

Apparently, Andy Haggard, the chairman of the board of trustees at Florida State, is not too pleased about the ACC’s new long-term television contract with ESPN. Mr. Haggard was incensed enough by this new contract that he openly discussed possibilities about joining the Big 12.  Whether or not FSU will actually leave the ACC is still a matter of debate—heck, FSU officials have never had informal meetings with the Big 12.  The issue at hand is that the ACC’s most dominant and prestigious football program in a conference of underachievers is calling out the conference’s top brass. 

One of the main issues, without going into the minutia of the actual contract, is that the contract is heavily back-loaded and, according to Yahoo! sports, the $4 million dollars that the schools in the ACC will receive from the deal doesn’t kick in for around 10 years.  In addition, it is not like the ACC attracted any talented football programs during the last conference reshuffling—they got Pitt and Syracuse.  In addition, the athletic program is running at a deficit that won’t be alleviated by the new TV deal.

TV revenue is the lifeblood for college football programs, and it keeps conferences together. Even if this is simply hype, it should prompt the ACC to try and give more benefits to FSU to keep them happy, because if FSU actually does pull the trigger and leave, then Miami would most likely follow Florida State to the Big 12. 

The movement to the Big 12 is all hinged on the Big 12’s ability to attract a high revenue and favorable TV contract, because if a 10-team conference can secure a better contract than a 14-team contract, why on earth would anybody stay in such a mediocre conference.  Let’s not forget that Clemson was thrashed in the Orange Bowl and Virginia Tech lost the Sugar Bowl.  As a result, it would be hard to place that conference as elite, and an elite program needs an elite conference.