Florida State Board of Trustees member reveals what was said during meeting about future in ACC

Last month, the Board of Trustees at Florida State raised eyebrows with its candid meeting about the Seminoles’ future in the ACC. One of the more notable comments came from former FSU quarterback Drew Weatherford, who said “it’s a matter of how and when” his alma mater leaves the conference as realignment dominoes fall.

As for what else was said during that meeting, Weatherford told Paul Finebaum the board understood the reality of the situation.

“Ultimately, the situation is pretty clear from our standpoint. … We, as a board, started really digging in and paying really close attention to the future of our conference — and frankly, the future of of our ability to be competitive,” Weatherford said on The Paul Finebaum Show Friday.

Weatherford said one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest, is money. The Big Ten is in the first year of a multi-billion dollar media rights deal while the SEC is getting ready for its agreement to kick in next year, which calls for reported payouts of $300 million per school. The Big 12 also renegotiated its media deal to orchestrate payouts of up to $30 million per university.

Weatherford also pointed out the role of NIL in the current landscape. The gap between the ACC and the top two conferences in terms of money — the Big Ten and the SEC — isn’t going to go away. The top programs in the country have strong NIL support, and Weatherford said that TV revenue might help grow that disparity.

Although Weatherford said he doesn’t necessarily want Florida State to leave the ACC, he’s also trying to see the whole board. That’s why he thinks the league is in a tough spot compared to the top conferences.

“It’s really just a math problem, Paul, as I think you’re well aware of,” Weatherford said. “If we stay in our conference for the next 13 years, there’s gonna be more than a half-a-billion-dollar delta between us and every SEC school. That’s a big number, right? That’s half-a-billion dollars that we’re going to have to ultimately raise to keep up from a facility standpoint. That’s a half a billion dollars that gets left and frankly, people that we have to compete for national championships against having their donor pockets that ultimately will end up being redirected to collectives, potentially.

“We ultimately would love to stay in the ACC, and I want to make that clear. It would be great if we could remain in the ACC and have a media contract that was competitive and allowed us to compete on a level playing field as the Big Ten and the SEC. But that is just not the case with the way things are structured today. We are unapologetically looking at every option that we have, and are ultimately just trying to look out for the best interest of our university and our student athletes.”

Despite its stance on leaving the ACC, the Florida State Board of Trustees missed the deadline make a decision and let the conference know about a 2024 departure. That came and went Aug. 15. As a result, the Seminoles will still be in the ACC beyond the 2023 season — although the same problems still exist.