http://sports.yahoo.com/n...sire-to-join-big-12.html
The first shock to the system hit Wednesday, when the ACC came to terms
with ESPN on a 15-year, $3.6 billion agreement that sure sounded good in
the press release. Each school was supposedly getting an additional $4
million a year. The average would be $17.1 million annually. Not bad, it
seemed.
The reality was bad, however. The initial bump in television revenue is
actually just over $1 million a year, sources said, and a total in the
$12 million range next season. The deal is back loaded so the bigger
money comes in escalator provisions that, considering how broadcast
rights keep growing, probably will be below market by the time any
sizeable gains are realized.
That additional $4 million per school, per year? That won't come until 2021, nine years in, sources said.
So here's Florida State, which acknowledged this spring it is running an
operating deficit and may have to trim up to $2.4 million a year in
expenditures. It's saddled with what it considers a less-thandesirable
football schedule as it tries to lure 80,000-plus all the way to the
Panhandle. The addition of Syracuse and Pitt to the league slate won't
help that problem in the least. And it's literally surrounded by
cash-rich SEC clubs.
The Big 12 should offer more of that money, emphasis on should.A
television contract featuring Texas, Oklahoma and FSU, with ties into
two of the most populous and most-football mad states in the country
should be better than the ACCs. And those tier three rights, whatever
they are worth, could remain property of the Seminoles.
Whether that's enough to offset what sources say is either a $20 million
or $23 million buyout to leave the ACC is another question.
For the Big 12, the concerns are few. FSU offers the national program
its been seeking since Nebraska left for the Big Ten. The Seminoles
aren't what they were in the hey-day of Bobby Bowden, but Jimbo Fisher
has them pointed in the proper direction and no one underestimates the
program's potential. This is a proven, name brand team. Its entire
athletic department is successful (basketball, baseball, etc).
It would anchor the league in two of the nation's best recruiting
rounds, Texas and Florida. Adding FSU and another school would allow for
a football conference championship game to be staged and would help add
strength to the non-Texas-Oklahoma division. That's something
oft-discussed candidates Cincinnati and Louisville can't do.
Would the Big 12 be interested in Florida State?
"I can't imagine how we wouldn't be interested in Florida State," one Big 12 source said.