Drew Weatherford: 'It's a matter of how and when' Florida State leaves ACC

The realignment winds are blowing, and Florida State is right in the middle of it. The Seminoles were one of the “Magnificent Seven” schools that reportedly looked at the ACC’s grant of rights, and a Wednesday Board of Trustees meeting added to the intrigue.

During the meeting, Drew Weatherford — who played quarterback at FSU from 2004-08 and currently serves on the board — made his stance clear on whether his alma mater will stay in the ACC long-term.

“I do think it’s an existential threat,” Weatherford said. “And this is just one board member speaking. Unless something drastic changes on the revenue side at the ACC, it’s not a matter of if we leave, in my opinion. It’s a matter of how and when we leave. Not everyone may agree with that, but I feel really strongly about it because I don’t want to play games. I want to go compete for championships moving forward. That’s what Florida State is about. And unfortunately, we’re in a situation where money matters more than ever and you cannot compete without the resources necessary.”

The latest round of realignment started last week when Colorado announced its plans to leave the Pac-12 and return to the Big 12. It sounds like that won’t be the last move Brett Yormark makes as On3’s Eric Prisbell reported Arizona as a possible target. The Pac-12’s media rights deal has been a big factor in the conversation.

But the ACC is also in an interesting spot. The league’s grant of rights runs through the 2030s, and Florida State was one of the teams to study the deal earlier this year to see just how unbreakable that agreement is.

The ACC signed its grant of rights in 2013 and updated it in 2016 when the ACC Network came about, extending the deal through 2036. But in the last few years, three other Power Five conferences — the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 — all came to new media rights deals and went through rounds of realignment. The SEC is bringing in Oklahoma and Texas while the Big Ten added USC and UCLA. The Big 12 is now adding four schools this year and will bring in Colorado when Texas and Oklahoma leave in 2024.

Those media rights deals have bigger payouts than the ACC. The Big Ten’s record-breaking deal is worth $7 billion over seven years and the Big 12 agreed to a new, $2.28 billion contract last year. The SEC’s deal is worth more than $300 million per season, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Weatherford wasn’t the only person to indicate FSU’s potential departure during the meeting, though. University president Rick McCullough made it clear he wants to “seriously consider” leaving the ACC unless something changes.

“Our goal would be to stay in the ACC. But staying in the ACC under the current situation is hard for us to figure out how we remain competitive. Unless there were a major change in the revenue distribution within the conference. I believe FSU will, at some point, have to very seriously consider leaving the ACC unless there is a radical change to the revenue distribution,” McCullough said.