College football reporter Ross Dellenger says FSU, Clemson considering Big 12 as backup plan
While he didn’t suggest that any news was imminent, or that it was one of Florida State’s first options, veteran college football reporter Ross Dellenger said Wednesday he believes representatives from FSU and Clemson have had initial conversations with the Big 12 about the possibility of joining that conference.
Dellenger, a senior college football reporter with Yahoo Sports, said he thinks the Seminoles and Tigers are considering the Big 12 as a fallback if none of their preferred scenarios come to fruition. He made that comment during an interview Wednesday with Big 12 reporter John Kurtz at Big 12 Media Days.
“The first option would probably be to get into the Big Ten or SEC,” Dellenger said. “The second option would be in some way to reform the ACC with a smaller number of teams. Where you would be in a financial advantage because you wouldn’t split the distribution, the TV distribution, with 18 [schools]. Maybe you would just split it with 10. So they could reform in a smaller group.
“And option three is to probably join another league. Which would obviously be … there’s only one other Power conference league, and that’s the Big 12.”
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, who snatched up several Pac-12 schools this past year, has said repeatedly that his league is “open for business” and is determined to become the No. 1 conference in college sports. That could only happen by adding more marquee programs to the 16-team league.
Florida State and Clemson, meanwhile, are both suing to leave the ACC with hopes of exiting the conference without having to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in exit fees and lost media rights.
As Dellenger said, the dream scenario for both schools is to join the SEC or Big Ten, because those leagues are projected to distribute $30-40 million more per school per year than the ACC currently does.
But he said there’s no indication yet that those conferences will agree to bring the schools in — even if they do regain their media rights through legal action or a settlement.
“Those things might happen, but I think there is at least early conversation between the Big 12 and those schools about the possibility,” Dellenger said. “I don’t know that it’s anything serious yet, because they still have to get out of the ACC — whether that’s through a settlement or a court ruling. So we could be months if not years away from something. But that does seem to be one of the possibilities.”
Even a move to the Big 12 could be challenging, Dellenger explained. For Florida State and Clemson to be interested in making that move, they likely would demand to be paid closer to what the schools in the biggest two conferences are making each year. They also would likely ask for financial help to pay their exit fees and/or penalties.
While landing the Seminoles and Tigers would definitely be a game-changer for the Big 12, Dellenger said some universities in the conference might balk at receiving much lower distributions each year.
“But if it means adding blue-blood football powers that you need, maybe there’s a spot,” he said.
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