TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State announced it will hold a Board of Trustees meeting on Friday and a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press the future of the athletic department and its affiliation with the Atlantic Coast Conference will be discussed.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the school had not yet published an agenda for the meeting.
Florida State leaders have made it known they are displeased with the school's current situation in the Atlantic Coast Conference, where revenue distributions lag behind in the Southeastern Conference and Big Ten Conference. That gap is likely to grow substantially in the near future as new media rights deals kick in for the SEC and Big Ten while the ACC is locked into a deal with ESPN that still has more than a decade left.
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Earlier this month, Florida State won the ACC football title game but became the first Power Five conference champion to finish with an undefeated record and still be left out of the College Football Playoff.
Any ACC school that wants to leave the conference would have to challenge the grant of rights to be able to get out before joining another league. The grant of rights, which runs through 2036, gives the ACC control over media rights for its member schools — including the broadcast of games in all sports.
In addition, any school that wants to leave the ACC would have to pay an exit fee of three times the league’s operating budget, or roughly $120 million.
Florida State is not the only ACC member concerned about the growing revenue gap, but it has been by far the most vocal.
The ACC has tried to address some of those concerns through a proposed new revenue distribution model that will reward schools for postseason success. The ACC also decided to expand, adding Stanford, California and SMU next year. All three schools agreed to join the conference at a reduced rate, with the extra money ESPN will pay for new members being directed into the bonus pool.
Florida State, along with Clemson and North Carolina, voted against expansion, but it was not enough to block the move approved by the other 12 members, including Notre Dame.
