Sunday links: Is this Florida State-Big 12 business for real?
Are we bound for another round of college football realignment? It seems like there’s plenty of smoke right now. Here’s what went down yesterday:
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** The Florida State Rivals site, Warchant.com, published an article in which FSU Board of Trustees Chairman Andy Haggard blasted the ACC for its new TV deal, saying the Seminoles should explore leaving for the Big 12 if it’s an option. What’s his beef? The ACC’s TV deal pays schools on average for the life of the contract about $3 million less per year than the new deal the Big 12 will soon have. And just wait until the SEC renegotiates. He doesn’t like that money gap, especially when it comes to rival Florida.
** Haggard was incorrect about one point: He said the ACC gave up third-tier TV rights to football but not basketball. The ACC office, according to crack Greensboro reporter David Morrison, says that’s not true. That ESPN owns all TV rights for all conference-controlled games for both sports.
** FSU coach Jimbo Fisher didn’t exactly shoot down the idea, although his quote in this Orlando Sentinel article seems more like coachspeak than a ringing endorsement for realignment. “There have been no official talks, but I think you always have to look out there to see what’s best for Florida State,” Fisher said. “If that [jumping to the Big 12] is what’s best for Florida State, then that’s what we need to do.”
** The latest kerfuffle at FSU is interesting, since athletic director Randy Spetman said Friday that the Seminoles were “committed to the ACC” with all their sports programs. Rumors began to run rampant yesterday, so Florida State president Eric Barron released a statement that the school “is not seeking an alternative to the ACC nor are we considering alternatives.” Case closed? Hardly. Who do you think is the AD and president’s boss? The Board of Trustees, of course.
** The Orlando Sentinel’s Coley Harvey wraps up the situation well here.
** As usual, Yahoo! Sports reporter Dan Wetzel has a fantastic take on the story. In it, he writes that the ACC’s TV deal is backloaded, with the schools receiving only a $1 million bump next year, with a $4 million per year increase later in the contract, as late as 2021.
** CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd goes all in on expansion, foreseeing the consolidation of power into four conferences (I feel like we’ve heard this before). In it, he mentions Virginia Tech as a possible partner to join FSU in joining the Big 12. That seems far-fetched at the moment, considering how little clout the Hokies-to-the-SEC rumors had last year, but I would never rule anything out in this expansion hysteria. That said, if you thought the SEC, a league not too far from Tech’s natural geographic footprint and one that’s practically printing money, was a hard sell to the Virginia Tech brass, imagine selling the idea of playing in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. I still feel like there are too many political hurdles for the Hokies to switch conferences even if they wanted to, but money often speaks louder than anything else.
So what does all of this mean? Who knows, exactly. If FSU feels it’s being shorted on money, then yeah, it should look at all of its options, as should any school.
The irony is that the ACC’s TV contract is what it is in part because Florida State hasn’t been as good as it was when Bobby Bowden was reeling off 10-win seasons in the 90′s. Do you realize the Seminoles’ last conference title came in 2005? If it was still competing for national championships — or at the very least, a division championship – on a regular basis then the league would be fetching a far larger price on the open market. As it is, the league is just not as marketable as a football conference as the SEC, Pac-12, Big Ten and Big 12. The TV deals don’t lie.
Will this go anywhere? I can’t say exactly. I think that the FSU trustee who started all t his will get a rude awakening when he finds out Texas football calls the shots in the Big 12 just as much as he thinks Duke and North Carolina do in the ACC, one of his gripes. Remember, this was a league that was on its deathbed not too long ago because of Texas’ stubborn refusal to give up the Longhorn Network.
And who knows how long this faucet of TV money is going to continue pouring in with these TV deals? At some point it has to level off, doesn’t it? I’m curious to see if FSU joining the Big 12 and opening up a renegotiation of the TV contract will fetch a whole lot more than the $20 million the league’s members will be getting per year soon. You can’t just expand for the sake of expanding. You have to add value in the schools you’re getting. FSU, obviously, would do that, but would bringing a school like, say, Louisville along to balance the league fetch another big payday?
And does all of this posturing make the ACC redouble its efforts to get Notre Dame to join the league? That would be a school that would move the needle in TV contract talks.
However it plays out, it seems like there will be plenty to talk about at the league’s annual meetings this week. Thoughts?
May 13, 2012 - 11:25 AM
FSU would get their butts beat repeatedly in either the SEC or Big 12, they better stay in the ” soft ” football league.
The problem is exactly as the word Andy used – “hysteria.” I have say I blame Scott (the PAC-12′s commissioner) for starting all the conference alignments and destroying traditions that took decades to make. Case in point – Missouri/Kansas, enuff said.
I think the problem is that FSU is trying to recapture it’s glory years when it was a juggernaut on a regular basis until it started to slow down. Hey, FSU’s Trustees, it’s called a cycle. Nobody wins forever. I think the money that the ACC is set to earn as soon as Pitts (pending a lawsuit versus the Big East) and Syracuse joins the league, which was obviously a basketball poaching more than anything. UConn is trying to set it’s sight on an eventual membership to the ACC, which would be the death kneel for the Big East. I read this morning a column at ESPN that the UConn’s AD is trying to bridge a relationship with Boston College, which makes sense as it gives the New England schools geographic and regional rivalry.
To make a long point short, I think that FSU is just teed off that their in-state rivals are making more money. Here’s an idea, FSU, starting winning the division on a regular basis and winning the conference crown, then you all can shut up down there.
This whole entitlement mentality from Florida sickens me.
I read about this in the San Antonio News Express today. I have to laugh. I think everyone else has to laugh. If they think that they will have influence in the Big 12 they deserve what they get. Let ‘em have at it.
Why? If the reason Florida State would move to the Big 12 because they feel that the ACC “favors the North Carolina Schools” just wait until they cast their baby blues on how the Big 12 bows and scrapes to the Univeristy of Texas.
How stupid is the guy who thinks that the U of T believes that the Big 12 needs Florida State?
How stupid is the guy from Florida State that he does not know why Texas A&M gave up a century old rivalry to join the SEC?
Either Florida State has a very foolish individual on the Board or this is a coy play to try to give Florida State a better deal.
If they need to be a dominating force in a conference, let them join Conference USA (could use a power team) or the WAC (now on life support so FSU can get anything they want) or the Mountain West (who folded already, right?).
Maybe they should join with Notre Dame and form a “league for the self-involved has beens”.
If you guys follow recruiting, it is quite clear that FSU is headed for great things. We may even see it this year!
Andy -
As I read the tea leaves, and anticipate a heavy probation period for the Canes, who can we get to take Miami into their conference? FL State is no longer the football power they were under Coach Bowden. The Canes are no longer a national interest and likely won’t be for some time to come. The ACC is best off in the long run if we severe ties with these two Florida schools.
v/r
RT
Times are changing, the only reason the Big12 does not have a Conference Network, is because the University of Texas was voted down 11-1 in favor of individual networks by all members back in 2005. Texas wanted a joint network w Texas aTm, and they said no. 2010, Texas gets the LHN, and now Texas aTm wants a Big12 Network.
Texas will make 20 million tier 1 and 2, 15 million Longhorn Network, and 10 million Radio/Website/Internet/Other media, thats 45 million
How long can football schools survive in ACC basketball conference when schools like FSU have budget deficits, and schools like Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, and Iowa State each have 100 million plus athletic facility renovations/construction going on
Schools like Florida and Texas stand to make 150 million more i than FSU in 10 years based on current TV/Media over the next 10 years
Times are changing, Football will Always pay the BillS!
757 resident, we hear that from FSU fans every year.
757 Resident, we’ve been hearing that for years now. I’ll believe it if/when I see it.
In college football nothing is real until it happens. That said I think VT needs an AD who is proactive and thinks ahead rather than chasing the train after it’s left the station.
If FSU were to leave, ACC football would be about as significant as the Mountain West. Winning or losing FSU is the horse that pulls the ACC wagon. The national media measures ACC football by what FSU does or doesn’t do; VT or Clemson or anyone else could be the number 1 team in the country but if FSU is having a down year the media will say the conference is down. VT would also have to leave or become a basketball school while swapping Beamer’s and Johnson’s salaries.
Don’t be surprised if FSU, Clemson, Miami, and GT (or Maryland…West Virginia needs a rival) tell the ACC “see ya” in late June.
Steve,
What you posted has no basis in reality. FSU adds nothing….nothing…..to the ACC right now.
Check out there last two recruiting classes, especially along the defensive line. It’s wicked.
Zman has a great comment about ND.
Steve is correct about the AD from VT.
I actually agree with Steve. FSU’s record from the late 80′s to 2000 was staggering. Two National Championships, 9 consecutive ACC Championships (or ties), an incredible 152-19-1 record from ’87 through ’00 and 15 years in a row of never ending the season ranked below #5! By winning percentage alone they are rnked the 3rd best team in CFB in the past 25 years. Clearly after the last NC ( we remember that all too well), they started a decline which in retrospect had more to do with Bobby Bowden’s age than anything else, though they did win the ACC in ’05 (again, a loss we remember too well). In his 2 years as head coach, Jimbo Fisher has a 19-8 record which includes 2 bowl wins and 2 Fla. Cup Championships (beating both UM and Florida in consecutive years). To say FSU adds nothing to the ACC right now to me is like saying the Yankees bring nothing to MLB becasue they haven’t won the World Series in 10 years.
FSU is a sleeping giant which regularly out recruits VT and most of the ACC teams year in and year out. Last year the ACC was a horrible 2-6 in bowls, and FSU had 1 of the W’s. The year before the ACC was 4-5 in bowls, again FSU had one of them. The ACC is a “soft” football conference for sure, losing one of the most consistent, successful, tradition rich teams would deal a major blow to the conference and only lessen it’s attractiveness to TV and recruits. When conferences are negotiating TV contracts, tradition and viewership are huge. The same with recruiting. Telling a recruit he’ll get to play against the likes of a FSU is big. FSU is major asset to the conference.
Listen, FSU is a good program but a shell of the program from mid 90′s. They can’t win the lowly ACC in Football now and want to look at tougher Big 12? Some of you said how good their recruiting has been recently but Notre Dame has also recruited well and look at them. SEC geographically a better fit but they know they would be 4th or 5th best team in that league so maybe Big 12 not so bad, ha.
The SEC doesn’t want them. It already has the state of Florida because of the Gators. And there’s no way Florida, Auburn and Georgia want FSU tapped into that cash cow. They’d much prefer them in a different, less-profitable league and would vote to block the ‘Noles from ever joining the SEC, I’d imagine.