Florida State should be 'taken seriously' in potential ACC exit

Florida State might not be bluffing when it says it wants to leave the ACC. There is a path to do it and ESPN’s Heather Dinich said the school is completely serious.

Former quarterback Drew Weatherford made it clear that the school wants a bigger piece of the ACC pie. The Grant of Rights in the conference run through 2036 while the rest of college football runs at a frantic pace.

According to Dinich, Florida State is willing to do whatever it takes.

“I was on the phone with a source from Florida State … there should be concern within the ACC,” Dinich said on Marty and McGee. “Jim Phillips, the commissioner, should be a little bit unnerved, stressed out right now because yes, people should be taking Florida State seriously. What you mentioned about private equity is true, and there’s a very real legal spiderweb they have to untangle themselves from. 

“But the problem that Florida State is facing and the reason they have been so strong in their conviction of if ‘we don’t get more money we’re going to leave’ is because not just right now the revenue distribution, but compounded over time through the duration of the contract, is what their biggest fear is that will really set them back even further against schools in the SEC and the Big Ten.”

Florida State isn’t the only one upset with the Grant of Rights within the ACC.

“Well, I think as we sit here, right now, there’s multiple schools that for a year have voiced concern,” Dinich said. “I mean, Clemson, Miami, it’s all about the revenue distribution. I was told and I believe guys, we’ve reported this on espn.com probably a year ago, that if eight schools in the ACC were to up and leave then they would no longer be bound by that Grant of Rights … Nothing would surprise me at this point.”

As far as where Florida State would go, the SEC makes the most logical sense. But the “It Just Means More” conference isn’t going to immediately do something on the heels of the Big Ten and Big 12 moves.

“I think one of the things I’m most comfortable saying right this skinny minute is that the SEC I don’t think is in any knee jerk reaction, panic type mode,” Dinich said. “But we’re also at a very real point where this isn’t over. It doesn’t feel like, it’s never over in college athletics, but I also feel like it’s never been this volatile before either.”