College football realignment rumors: Florida State has a problem
The college football landscape is changing again. The only question is whether Colorado’s move to the Big 12 was an aftershock of USC and UCLA moving to the Big Ten or a foreshock of more seismic changes.
Florida State is apparently flirting with the possibility of triggering a major earthquake in the CFB world. This week, athletic director Michael Alford, president Richard McCullough and other FSU figures openly threatened a departure from the ACC.
The Seminoles want a bigger piece of pie and they’re not sure they’re going to get it in their current conference. So they’re willing to look elsewhere.
But FSU has a problem, it’s the same one Oregon and Washington find themselves in: They may have already missed the window to get the good money in the Big Ten or SEC.
Stewart Mandel laid that out in The Athletic (subscription required), throwing cold water on the idea that the Seminoles would be welcomed into the SEC, their “most logical suitor.”
The money from the SEC TV deal comes from ESPN and ESPN already has the rights to air Florida State home games via the ACC for the next decade. If the Seminoles don’t bring much added value to the broadcast partner, then the conference doesn’t have very much incentive to cut them in.
So Florida State may make a lot of noise, but that racket doesn’t look likely to trigger a landscape shift.