College football realignment: Florida State looking at moving conferences
College football realignment is in the air again this offseason, and now it appears Florida State is the one looking for a new conference.
School president Richard McCullough recently met with the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and let it be known that Florida State is ready for anything.
College football expansion: Florida State next?
What he said: "It's something I'm spending a lot of time on and we're getting a lot of help. We're trying to do anything we can to think about how we remain competitive. Florida State is expected to win. We're going to be very aggressive," McCullough said.
This isn't the first time Florida State has been mentioned with regard to expansion, as FSU site Nole Gameday reported in July that two leagues have already discussed membership with Florida State officials.
Big Ten and SEC on the table: "The Seminoles have had discussions with the SEC and Big Ten since last summer. Both conferences have displayed an interest in adding the university to their group of current members, along with other schools in the ACC," according to Nole Gameday.
Florida State joined the ACC ahead of the 1992 football season and immediately dominated, finishing in the top 10 rankings for nine straight years through 2000 and winning two national championships.
Leaving the ACC is hard, though: Current league members are locked into a grant of rights agreement that doesn't expire until 2036.
That means if a school wants to leave the ACC before then, it would have to fork over a major exit fee, reportedly around $100 million. That could leave the conference intact for the next decade-plus.
College football realignment this year: USC and UCLA caused the latest bombshell in the expansion trend, applying to join the Big Ten in time for the 2024 football season.
In turn, the Big Ten accepted, adding the two premier brands in the Los Angeles media market, the second-largest and most important in the country.
And that move followed last offseason's shuffle that saw Texas and Oklahoma announce they would join the SEC likely in 2025.
Big Ten cashing in: It may make travel logistics more difficult, but the schools and conference will get paid on the deal, big time: up to and exceeding $1 billion per year on the next media deal, according to most reports.
(h/t Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce)
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