Florida St is filing its lawsuit.
- Thread starter patdog
- Start date
They just want to put themselves in the portal like everyone else.
Absolutely. But I don’t think the ACC is really in the mood to make many concessions on this.
Their best bet is to get enough ACC teams invited to the SEC, BIg 10, and Big 12 that it all falls apart and they all go their separate ways for free.
Of course, adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU is going to complicate that.
Of course, adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU is going to complicate that.
I think at this point, the cost of doing nothing is even higher than whatever attorneys fees they will undertake for this. Even if it gets thrown out, they have to try something. They just went 13-0, with 2 wins over SEC teams, and still got shut out of the playoff due to how bad their league sucks.
All the while, they are getting only about 50% of their actual value in return in the TV deal. Compared to just buying their way out of the GOR, the total cost to their bottom line is going to end up being about the same either way over the long haul….that’s how much money they are losing.
My guess is that any legal challenges they present will not be centered around fairness of the contract or the terms itself, but rather of the contract is in violation of Florida law, or if it was signed under nefarious pretense like group coercion (which it pretty much was). It will be interesting to follow either way.
It’s a lot to read through but in some of their statements FSU is not happy about Cal Stanford and SMU being added.
Agree. Nothing to lose by trying. Worst case, they’re out the attorney fees. Which as large as they will be, are pretty insignificant compared to what they gain. And maybe, just maybe they could use the lawsuit as leverage to negotiate the ACC down from $550M+ to something they could afford. Still think it’s a long shot at best.
As for group coercion, there was no more powerful school at that table than Florida St. If they don’t sign that agreement, no one does.
Wonder what that little be-otch Danny Kanell will have to say about it? I just searched the interwebs looking for a comment but he's still be-otching about getting left out of the playoffs as late as today and hasn't even started on this topic yet evidently. He'll have a massive coronary if they were to end up in the SEC
I think that’s easy to say now that its known they could be an add to the SEC, but that wasn’t super obvious back in 2014-2015.
Clemson, UNC, Miami, and UVA also have quite a bit of pull. FSU has more than any one of those individually, but nowhere close to what those schools have if they are all acting together. They are nowhere close to a Texas (Big 12 version), Ohio State, or USC (Pac 12 version) as far as the degree of autonomy they could leverage in the TV deal.
What would they do if FSU says it’s not going to sign? Kick them out of the league? Of course not. They wouldn’t have the votes even if they wanted to. But they’re not that dumb. They know an ACC without FSU wouldnt get anywhere the TV revenue it would with FSU. What would happen is they’d continue negotiations until they came to an agreement they all agreed on.
I believe that the general GOR framework was what every ACC school wanted except for maybe FSU, and all would have benefitted from it except FSU and maybe Clemson.
Even if FSU refused the specific terms of the 20-year GOR, its not like they were going to get a deal with no GOR or only like 10 years, and even if they did - they’d still be getting 17ed. There’s an absolute chasm between the terms they signed and what they should have agreed to, and I don’t think they were going to get anything close to all the terms they wanted at that time, no matter what. They would have been voted out if it assured that the other teams weren’t going anywhere, which is what would have happened, and they’d have no dance partner to go to the SEC with, either. The ACC basically had all the leverage. And B1G likely wouldn’t be interested either since they aren’t AAC members.
Its also important to remember the context of the times in 2015, where the ACC was about 1-2 departures away from becoming the Big East / ACC, and a non-extension of their GOR was going to more or less start a game of chicken between FSU, Miami, UNC, and UVA (Clemson was not yet an elite program yet). ESPN saw that vulnerability and exploited it.
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Was reading another article that indicated that the ACC made an extension to the terms with ESPN, that FSU and others did not get to vote on.
And the indication was, this is a violation of ACC bylaws. (the term was for several years)
I seriously doubt this happened. If it did, the ACC could simply negotiate a new media rights deal with anyone. Because the deal with ESPN wouldn’t be a valid contract.
I don’t know that it does. It’s a separate contract with a 3rd party.
Common misconception. Contracts can contain all kinds of language that may not hold up in court. After all, they must operate within the laws written by our wonderful legislatures.
The story is ACC made a 20 year extension without approval from the schools. Now they are stuck in an old contract with ESPN that is dwarfed by the SEC and Big 10 newer contracts. Also there is a clause that it takes like 9 members to sign thst would end the ACC. That number may not be right but it's like a three fouths majority or quorum or something. And they voted against adding teams because they would not make them more attractive for TV contracts. I hope they pull it off. Why would anyone sign a 20 year contract ??
There is no way the ACC entered into that contract without the schools’ approval. And there is no way the ACC unilaterally extended the GOR unless it was provided for in the original grant. If they had, why wait 6 years to even question it? SEC made a similarly bad deal with CBS. And we had to ride it out to the end.
That’s why you pay lawyers to draft those contracts. It just cost Texas & Oklahoma $50M each to get out of a similar deal just 1 year early.
They playoff is expanding, but their take isn’t. They’ll be pulling in less TV money next year overall than Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Rutgers, and Indiana even if they win the national championship.
Yeah but if the path to the playoff is easier why not take that. I thought that was the point. Maybe they would rather be able to hire 75 analysts and have an ath dept directory with 500 people in it instead of a better path to a natty.
They are trying whatever they can to get out of the conference. I'm sure they are hoping to work some kind of a reduced buy out. They would pay 100 million today if the ACC would release them. It makes me wonder if somebody hasn't already told them they would welcome them into the SEC. No doubt they would like another 2 or 3 schools to jump into this lawsuit with them also.
Because the path to the actual national title isn’t really any easier, even though the playoff is easier to make. If this year was a 12-team CFP, FSU would host a 1st Round game against somebody like Ole Miss or Penn State, and probably get their *** beat.
Even if they won, they’d have a 2nd round game in Tuscaloosa against a fully rested Bama team. They’d then have to win that, and they’d have to do all that just to get into what is the equivalent of the current 4-team CFP. They would have absolutely zero chance of a natty this year, even if it was a 12-teamer. That’s the next controversy coming, actually. We’re gonna have the 12-team format for like 10 years, and not a single time is it ever going to be won by a team that didn’t get one of the 4 byes, and then the bye will be “too big of an advantage”, and so the move will then happen to go to 16 teams.
Anyway, FSU badly needs to close the revenue gap in order to remain anywhere close to the level they’ve been at for the past 30 years. They are currently getting lapped by the elites of the SEC / Big 10, and very soon its going to start showing up on their roster.
Well they boatraced LSU who is roughly the same team as OM. Penn state isn’t very good.
and they currently sit top 10 in recruiting. If it were me I’d become king of the ACC and sell kids on that path vs the brutal ACC/sec. And if you don’t like it in 12 years change course. Its not like anyone is banging down their door.
They boatraced LSU in Week 1, when both were very different teams than they were at the end of the year. Hell, I’m old enough to remember them boatracing UF at the end of the season in 1996, then getting boatraced by the same UF team with the natty on the line just a month later.
As far as being king of the ACC, what good is that if it won’t even guarantee you a real shot at the title….and it costs you $40 million + per season in lost earnings?
Well if FSU is getting lapped by the sec in athletes it wouldn’t matter what week it happened. I mean who cares- the games all count. Week 1 or week 14.
And we just disagree on competitiveness. They would be fine.
I don’t care to split hairs on whether or not they’d be fine, competitively speaking. Even in a best case revenue situation, they wouldn’t ever be guaranteed a legit natty chance or a title.
But, one thing that they currently are 100% guaranteed, in the current arrangement, is that they are pulling in tens of millions of dollars per year less than they could be or should be from their media rights deal. And that’s what’s driving all this.
I think both the SEC and Big 10 would prefer they stay in the ACC for a few more years.
Again king of the acc gives them an easier path to the playoffs and therefore a chance at the NC.
There is no guarantee being in the sec makes them a playoff team. See the Florida Gators.
It's not about a path to the NC. FSU will have that no matter where they are. It's about $30M in media revenue every year.
I’m not seeing anything…..we all know the end game is ncaa and basketball….they own that, the football they have nothing. They can’t tell anyone what to do. No, we do not Florida state…do not even think
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