Pete Thamel reveals details into FSU's upcoming board meeting about leaving the ACC

Florida State has talked openly about its desire to get out of the ACC over the past year. Now FSU appears ready to take a major step towards doing so.

The Florida State Board of Trustees is holding an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss its future in the ACC, it announced Thursday morning.

ESPN insider Pete Thamel joined the Pat McAfee Show Thursday afternoon and detailed what exactly is taking place.

“Florida State has called a board meeting for Friday to discuss potentially taking legal action to get out of the Grant of Rights,” Thamel said. “Right now, the ACC owns the rights to every team in the ACC’s home sports content until 2036. So it’s the same for Florida State as it is for Boston College, Wake Forest, Miami, whoever else.

“And when they signed the 20-year deal, somewhere around 2015-16 to do this, they essentially said, ‘You own all of our content.’ So now, eight years in, Florida State officials have been very clear that they feel like the ACC deal is now out of market. And therefore, they want to unwind from the Grant of Rights, which would be the first step towards leaving the league and then joining another league.”

Florida State enters the postseason with a 13-0 record, but the Seminoles missed out on the College Football Playoff after star quarterback Jordan Travis was injured late in the season. There has been speculation that Florida State would have still made the playoff if it was in the SEC.

McAfee asked Thamel if Florida State being snubbed contributed to FSU’s desire to leave the ACC.

Thamel believes the Seminoles would be looking to leave the league either way.

“This moment is not surprising, if you listened to Florida State’s rhetoric in the last year. In February, the Athletics Director Michael Alford said, ‘Something has to change financially in order for Florida State to stay in the ACC.’ In August, the school president said that they very seriously considered leaving the ACC,” Thamel said.

“I’ve done this 20 years now – nobody that I’ve ever seen has come out and spoken this overtly against a league. So today’s announcement that there’s a board meeting tomorrow is essentially actions meeting words. And the actions were expedited because of the snub. But I don’t think you can fairly say this is solely because of the snub. They wanted to do this. They’ve essentially declared they’re going to do it. And this is how they’re going to do it.”

Thamel expects this process to take some time and believes ultimately it will be decided in court as far as if Florida State can leave the ACC and how much it will cost to do so.

The current ACC Grant of Rights lasts through 2036, and Thamel speculates that ACC teams will be $30 million behind SEC and Big Ten teams yearly in terms of revenue brought in from the league.

“The thought that’s been prevailing at Florida State, and Clemson has mentioned this as well, is that we can’t compete with – if you’re Florida State, say Florida, if you’re Clemson, say South Carolina — your neighboring schools, if they’re making $30 million more a year than you,” Thamel said.

There is a $120 million exit fee Florida State would have to pay the ACC to leave, according to Thamel, in addition to however much it would cost to get out of the Grant of Rights.

“Florida State’s rights for the next 12 years are worth a lot of money. And the ACC isn’t just going to say, ‘Oh, OK, we’re going to let you go.’ So that could be another $100 million-plus negotiation or a court says, ‘OK, we’ll allow you to go, but you have to pay the worth of it.’ It’s a tremendous amount of money,” Thamel said.

“So this is going to be expensive and it’s not certain to work. The court could say, ‘You know what? You willingly signed these documents. You’re gonna have to honor your contract.'”