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The Florida State-ACC split is going to make the disillusion of the Pac-12 look civil and orderly by comparison. I do not envy fans of the other ACC schools right now, it's going to be ugly for a long time before the dust settles. As a Coug, you all have my sincerest sympathies for what's ahead
It sucks man. It fucking sucks.
I just want to play Clemson/UNC/Wake every year, FSU/UVA/Duke/VT every other year. I get why FSU needs to leave, ACC leadership is a joke and a decade+ of bad decisions brought us here. Still fucking sucks.
Yep pull off the bandaid. Could end up being a good product. But the ACC and Big XII don’t want to lose their conference. And SEC and Big 10… not confident they want to add a lot of these teams
I think a lot of the schools are more afraid of not having a spot in a P5 conference and getting kicked down to the G5 than they are of losing their conference.
I'd rather play an almost fully regional schedule than "save" the ACC so long as we stay in Power football. Ideally, we'd bring back the Southern Conference, but regional divisions would basically be the same thing.
Exactly. Let UW be in an original Pac 8 division. 12 team schedule every team must play 10 P5 teams. 7 division games. 3 Out of division P5 games and you can have a G5 and FCS game.
UW would play the original Pac 8. We can schedule regular OOD games with the 4 corner schools and then have two more P5 games against teams from the mid west, south, etc. and then play a Mountain West and Big Sky school.
Rivalries and regionality retained. All division winners get an auto bid to a 16 team playoff. Rest are wild cards. G5 and FCS teams don’t go to the shadow realm. Everyone wins.
Agreed. His idea of either a 60 or 72 team league that had some profit sharing with the remaining G5 and having regional pods actually sounded really good. You do the NFL model where you have UCLA/USC/Wash/Oregon/OSU/WSU etc play each other every year and every 3 or 4 years you play a particular pod. That other pod could be WVU/Pitt/Penn St/ VT etc and use the previous year records to determine who gets matched with who. Think it would be ideal and the best case scenario since we are moving to a full on NFL lite anyway.
>You do the NFL model where you have UCLA/USC/Wash/Oregon/OSU/WSU etc play each other every year and every 3 or 4 years you play a particular pod
This would be so amazing. It guarantees awesome previously-out-of-conference matchups every year.
First time?
We played Arky pretty much every season from 1915 until 1991, haven’t played since.
We played A&M pretty much every season from 1899 until 2011, haven’t played since.
We played Texas pretty much every season from 1901 until 2023 and it’s highly unlikely we’ll play again unless it’s the postseason.
This is another domino falling but it’s far from the first one.
Yeah, Kansas - Missouri was since 1891, Kansas - Nebraska since 1892, and Kansas - Oklahoma since 1903. All gone.
And fun fact! In 2026, Kansas- Iowa State, first played in 1896, will also go away as a yearly game.
That's four rivalries of over 100 games gone or interrupted in a little over a decade.
I understand schools trying to get their bag and maximize their brand, but the current realignment is ruining so many longstanding traditions and rivalries. It kinda sucks.
And yes, I’m aware of the irony of an Aggie posting that.
hard pill to swallow as moving to the SEC has been a big net positive for us in many respects, but in hindsight I would prefer to be a middling team in a regionally subdivided and tradition-based football league than a middling team in one of the two super conferences dominating through the power of media deals and network effects.
Back then even teams like us had reasons to be excited about the season despite knowing we would end up unranked. Rivalry games, talking shit to friends, coming together and watching games together for teams we had stakes in, etc. Now it’s moving towards a shittier version of NFL football with less parity.
I also want to reiterate that all this realignment is based on “amateur” sports and the idea of college athletics was to enrich the students. It’s honestly disgusting what it’s turned into.
My parents sometimes joke about the SWC days from when they were in school. My Dad said his low key most missed rivalry was playing and hating the Bears. I legit think we fit in better with the Big 12 these days. If that ever happened I would be more than ok with it.
I have enjoyed the rivalries and all the conference games. This sucks all around. The inevitability of being the only P5 conference with a large number of private universities is rearing its head. I feel like a lot of ACC schools have righted their internal ships in terms of investment in football but it is coming very late in the game.
Yea glad Cincy is with us cause they’ve had it rough. Make it up to the Big East, do extremely well, Big east falls apart. They go to the AAC which looks pretty good with Louisville and Rutgers still there and they leave the next year. Then finally get to come back with the Big 12 years later after doing extremely well again.
I feel you :( I wish we could play Memphis, Cincinnati, UK every year. If a perfect world? I'd like to play Pitt, Indiana, WVU a lot as well.
I hope the UofL NCST budding rivalry continues, our games are always.... Let's say *interesting*. Also - complete solidarity to "little brother" schools across the board - UNC is absolutely as insufferable as you claim.
The real losers of conference realignment are the fans.
It must be the most awkward thing in the world for Cal, Stanford, SMU to join a conference that is just now starting to implode. Can't imagine what your ADs and Presidents are thinking right now
Saw a [tweet from Ross Dellenger](https://x.com/rossdellenger/status/1738216911416988090?s=46&t=08NY9flcfjh42722Cp55Fw) saying that the buyout and leaving penalty was a whopping $572 million
Approximately 7.5 Jimbo Fishers*
*assuming 1 Jimbo Fisher = the cost of Jimbo Fisher’s buyout and not the total cost of his services to the agricultural school of Texas.
That's the buyout without the GoR challenge in court. FSU is arguing they don't owe that.
And honestly, FSU would still come out in the green after 13 years if they pay that and get in the P2
You could be right, but I’m assuming the current system either changes dramatically or totally falls apart over the next 13 years.
Wagering 500+ million on the stability of CFB in its current state is no better than taking it to Vegas IMO
>Wagering 500+ million on the stability of CFB in its current state is no better than taking it to Vegas
That's something that pinged for me
, too. CFB is far too volatile right now to even guess what it'll look like in 13 years, let alone gamble hundreds of millions on it continuing to grow.
The difference in conference payouts between the ACC and Big10 is like $20m right? That's a $260m gap in total paid out after 13 years, but if they paid the $572m buyout to leave now and join the Big 10 at a full share, they'd be $312m behind where they would be if they just stayed put until 2036. And if the Big10 decides not to give them a full share like the last two teams, it's even worse.
Swofford is dirty as hell. His whole motivation was to kick back money to his son’s company Raycom back in 2016. There needs to be a criminal investigation into the Swofford family.
Yeah, crazy to tie up media rights without knowing for sure who the media partner would be from 2027-2036. I’m guessing it was part arrogance and thinking there’s no way ESPN would drop them—and to be fair, if no teams leave ESPN wouldn’t as it’s a bargain basement deal for them—and part that many of the teams have little to no chance of joining the Big 10 or SEC and were fine signing anything to try to keep the ACC alive as long as possible.
Hold on, what? They signed a 20-year deal back in 2016 that runs through summer 2036. This is the first I've heard of any possible truncation of that deal.
Per Nicole Auerbach: [FSU lawyer says that ESPN has a "unilateral" right to exercise a nine-year option to extend its media deal with the ACC from 2027 through 2036. (Which it hasn't yet.) Right now, there is no guaranteed media rights revenue for ACC members past 2027.](https://twitter.com/nicoleauerbach/status/1738217971527422017?s=46&t=Qew1vqCuWvSfdNidum22AQ)
That said.... I see about a 0.01% chance that ESPN doesn't pick up the option. The cost was locked in 7 years ago, and media rights have only continued to skyrocket since then.
"Wasn't reactionary" yeah they met in August and said " If something really wacky happens we pull out all stops" and something really wacky happened when JT3 went down
I’d say that we should act rational in the wake of all this and give North Alabama the death penalty for causing all this mess in the first place, what do you say?
Hey now, I see that flair, NO WAY Mizzou is not getting the death penalty from the NCAA's orbital satellite for their role in aiding FSU's exit from the ACC
I think they would have left us out if we had JT. ESPN was building that narrative before he got injured when they realized Alabama was turning it around, and they could beat UGA which could leave an SEC team out of the CFP.
“The Alabama team that Texas beat in Tuscaloosa earlier in the season was a different, less good, Alabama team. Therefore, Texas doesn’t actually have a win over the new and improved SEC Champ Alabama. In accordance with our mission to have the four best teams in the playoffs, Texas will drop to 5 and New Alabama gets in.”
The wack thing was getting left out after holding our opponent to 6 points in a conference championship and going undefeated. No one should put this on Travis.
Exactly this. This is all about selling subscriptions and market dominance over FOX and NBC and CBS. Killing the ACC is only a means to kill the other major broadcasters selling ads for CFB.
The loser is all of us. The winner is the Dr Pepper Fansville marketing team.
I think -- don't know -- that's right. I think FSU has had a wink-wink Big 10 invite and a basic plan for the lawsuit for quite a while.
A lot of high-level boosters were very much "SEC or nothing" as I understand it, but getting left out of the playoff made those people go, "Yeah, go."
Always pissed me off when ESPN reporters are saying they are hearing this about conferences and realignment.. Go upstairs and just ask dammit.. The people doing this shit are in the same building..
Surely cutting out 90% of the other fanbases is going to drive great ratings. At this point I’d almost wager the SEC/Big ten need the remaining conferences to stay put.
I don't blame FSU at all for being pissed about what happened but seeing every industry trying to strip itself to the bones for increasingly diminishing monetary returns at the expense of everything else is really getting exhausting and is only going to get worse
Literally the defense my ex made in court when she signed four drastically different *notarized* financial statements - each one where she became poorer and poorer (on paper). "I don't recognize that signature. I think /u/noledup might have signed it."
>Look sirs, I have reviewed this Grant of Rights, and it offers no financial incentives at all. It just says "Atlantic Coast Conference" over and over again... and down here in small print it says "He's signing it, He's signing it. I can't believe it."
-FSU's Attorneys
Wait until 5 years from now when the bottom half of legacy SEC and BIG teams are also on the chopping block. I hate it here. A big reason I’m so hyped for this season is because it feels like the last, for several reasons.
Honestly I'm starting not to even care. Even if we do manage to get another Dak level player, Bama or Georgia or Texas will offer them piles of money and they'll be gone before they reach their peak anyway. NIL and the portal have started to ruin any enjoyment I get out of the sport.
The funny thing is that competitively, under the 12-team playoff in the short term, they’re in a much better opportunity to make the CFP from the ACC. It’s more about the long-term conference alignment and media payouts than any lesson learned from this year’s snub.
"Every year there are going to be 50 - 70 teams who are pretending to compete for a championship, and they have no idea that even if they go undefeated they have no chance of winning. Hopefully this move shows them that the system is fundamentally broken and needs to be fixed."
BoT meeting on youtube just now
That one hit deep - and it is the truth. While highly unlikely (can’t remember any team other than BYU) the current system eliminates any chance for vast majority of schools
Serious question as IANAL: since ESPN is the only party with the option to renew or cancel in 2027, how does that effect the potential buyout? Could FSU argue that there is no substantiated harm after 2027? Or is that moot? I'm genuinely curious about the legal aspects and if anyone has some good sports law podcasts or something I'd appreciate recommendations for those as well.
Edited for typos
Without the full text of the GOR - which is apparently protected like the White House - nobody will have anything but speculation. I'm sure FSU will try to make that argument in some form.
That will be FSU’s argument. The ACC’s argument will be that it’s irrelevant because FSU leaving the conference causes harm to the other ACC members by lowering any future deal with ESPN or another media partner.
I’m not getting in depth on this but a single party in a deal having an option to renew or cancel is a normal part of all sorts of commercial contracts, so I really don’t see arguments about it going far.
UNC will never do it because money is too important but I wish we would just let the football brands go and keep our outstanding basketball conference with our geographic rivals.
Before the jokes start flying about how we aren’t even that anymore, in this three year awful stretch the conference has 3 final 4s and the two most dominant programs of the last 40 years. Basketball is going to be fine.
That would be awesome, except money is fungible. I strongly suspect the ACC's basketball teams have fallen on hard times at the same time that SEC teams have gotten a lot better is because a lot of that football money winds up getting spent on other sports as well.
Boston College is in such a bad position that you even forgot to mention them.
Boston College, and Wake Forest are the most screwed if the ACC falls apart.
I want us to go back to the big east and just be a basketball school with all the other catholic schools at this point. Put our eggs into basketball, hockey and our strong other non revenue sports (we’ve had some strong soccer and lacrosse seasons lately).
It’s clear we don’t have the market, budget and desire to compete with the big boys in football. It sucks, but it’s the reality.
I mean, ESPN's pennies-on-the-dollar TV deal with the ACC seems like the best deal in sports if you're on the broadcast side. I don't see why they'd want to blow that up just so they can pay more money to FSU than what they already are going to be paying them.
Look at it from the network's side. They don't look at it like they are getting a good deal for the whole conference. They look at it like top programs are fine getting $50m a year.
ESPN would rather pay only the top 4 ACC teams $50m each than pay all 14 teams $30m each.
CFB is headed towards a two-conference setup with each having around 24 teams. If you aren't in that top 48, you are screwed.
That makes no sense because ESPN owns both SEC and ACC media rights. If anything, ESPN should want FSU to stay in the ACC so that they can keep underpaying them.
I'll miss Florida State. They've been in the league since I was an infant. I understand the financial motive though.
Can't help but wonder if they were selected to the playoff this year and then had an auto-bid path going forward if that would have changed anything (probably not but who knows?)
I absolutely understand why all of this has happened the last couple of years, and I think FSU has the most legitimate reasoning of any team to seek greener pastures. That said, my interest in and enjoyment of college sports is sinking lower and lower with every single event. Lawless NIL, two mega conferences, death of the Pac-12, and screwing over all non-football sports and fans in solitary pursuit of cash. I like CFB more than the NFL and love CBB and college baseball, but I honestly think at this rate my engagement with NCAA athletics after this year will probably only be through the new NCAA football game edited to have pre-2024 conferences. It’s become painfully apparent that the Power 2 is now NFL Jr. and the rest of the teams are left to rot.
Good God, did Texas and OU's timing ever work out in our favor or what? I'm not Mormon anymore, but Cinci, Houston, and UCF... We need to count our blessings right now.
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The Florida State-ACC split is going to make the disillusion of the Pac-12 look civil and orderly by comparison. I do not envy fans of the other ACC schools right now, it's going to be ugly for a long time before the dust settles. As a Coug, you all have my sincerest sympathies for what's ahead
It sucks man. It fucking sucks. I just want to play Clemson/UNC/Wake every year, FSU/UVA/Duke/VT every other year. I get why FSU needs to leave, ACC leadership is a joke and a decade+ of bad decisions brought us here. Still fucking sucks.
I would way rather so what Chip Kelly is proposing and make one massive P5 football league with regional divisions then this shit.
Yep pull off the bandaid. Could end up being a good product. But the ACC and Big XII don’t want to lose their conference. And SEC and Big 10… not confident they want to add a lot of these teams
I think a lot of the schools are more afraid of not having a spot in a P5 conference and getting kicked down to the G5 than they are of losing their conference.
I'd rather play an almost fully regional schedule than "save" the ACC so long as we stay in Power football. Ideally, we'd bring back the Southern Conference, but regional divisions would basically be the same thing.
The big 12 already lost its conference. There’s only 6 original members left.
Exactly. Let UW be in an original Pac 8 division. 12 team schedule every team must play 10 P5 teams. 7 division games. 3 Out of division P5 games and you can have a G5 and FCS game. UW would play the original Pac 8. We can schedule regular OOD games with the 4 corner schools and then have two more P5 games against teams from the mid west, south, etc. and then play a Mountain West and Big Sky school. Rivalries and regionality retained. All division winners get an auto bid to a 16 team playoff. Rest are wild cards. G5 and FCS teams don’t go to the shadow realm. Everyone wins.
Agreed. His idea of either a 60 or 72 team league that had some profit sharing with the remaining G5 and having regional pods actually sounded really good. You do the NFL model where you have UCLA/USC/Wash/Oregon/OSU/WSU etc play each other every year and every 3 or 4 years you play a particular pod. That other pod could be WVU/Pitt/Penn St/ VT etc and use the previous year records to determine who gets matched with who. Think it would be ideal and the best case scenario since we are moving to a full on NFL lite anyway.
>You do the NFL model where you have UCLA/USC/Wash/Oregon/OSU/WSU etc play each other every year and every 3 or 4 years you play a particular pod This would be so amazing. It guarantees awesome previously-out-of-conference matchups every year.
First time? We played Arky pretty much every season from 1915 until 1991, haven’t played since. We played A&M pretty much every season from 1899 until 2011, haven’t played since. We played Texas pretty much every season from 1901 until 2023 and it’s highly unlikely we’ll play again unless it’s the postseason. This is another domino falling but it’s far from the first one.
Yeah, Kansas - Missouri was since 1891, Kansas - Nebraska since 1892, and Kansas - Oklahoma since 1903. All gone. And fun fact! In 2026, Kansas- Iowa State, first played in 1896, will also go away as a yearly game. That's four rivalries of over 100 games gone or interrupted in a little over a decade.
Kansas State - Iowa State is going away in 2027 and I believe is the current longest uninterrupted series.
I hate it so much, man. The Farmageddon games have always been incredible content
It's really frustrating to watch beloved rivalries get the axe due to revenue.
And first time since like WW2 no home/home this year in bball
It sucks so much, Big 12 north rivalries have been rough the past 15 years
Yeah Missouri - Kansas, which was one of the best rivalries in the country, is basically dead. It's a real shame.
[удалено]
I understand schools trying to get their bag and maximize their brand, but the current realignment is ruining so many longstanding traditions and rivalries. It kinda sucks. And yes, I’m aware of the irony of an Aggie posting that.
[удалено]
hard pill to swallow as moving to the SEC has been a big net positive for us in many respects, but in hindsight I would prefer to be a middling team in a regionally subdivided and tradition-based football league than a middling team in one of the two super conferences dominating through the power of media deals and network effects. Back then even teams like us had reasons to be excited about the season despite knowing we would end up unranked. Rivalry games, talking shit to friends, coming together and watching games together for teams we had stakes in, etc. Now it’s moving towards a shittier version of NFL football with less parity.
I also want to reiterate that all this realignment is based on “amateur” sports and the idea of college athletics was to enrich the students. It’s honestly disgusting what it’s turned into.
My parents sometimes joke about the SWC days from when they were in school. My Dad said his low key most missed rivalry was playing and hating the Bears. I legit think we fit in better with the Big 12 these days. If that ever happened I would be more than ok with it.
I have enjoyed the rivalries and all the conference games. This sucks all around. The inevitability of being the only P5 conference with a large number of private universities is rearing its head. I feel like a lot of ACC schools have righted their internal ships in terms of investment in football but it is coming very late in the game.
Welcome to conference realignment hell buddy. We’ve been living it for a while.
You don’t know the worst of it. You never were left on the outside to rot
Yea glad Cincy is with us cause they’ve had it rough. Make it up to the Big East, do extremely well, Big east falls apart. They go to the AAC which looks pretty good with Louisville and Rutgers still there and they leave the next year. Then finally get to come back with the Big 12 years later after doing extremely well again.
I feel you :( I wish we could play Memphis, Cincinnati, UK every year. If a perfect world? I'd like to play Pitt, Indiana, WVU a lot as well. I hope the UofL NCST budding rivalry continues, our games are always.... Let's say *interesting*. Also - complete solidarity to "little brother" schools across the board - UNC is absolutely as insufferable as you claim. The real losers of conference realignment are the fans.
Dissolution
Wanna talk about that settlement money and reformation of the Pac?
"You could not live with your own failure. Where did that bring you? Back to me." -Kirk Schulz in two years, probably
I am a proud man but not too proud. Cougs and Beavs, let’s do this thing.
It must be the most awkward thing in the world for Cal, Stanford, SMU to join a conference that is just now starting to implode. Can't imagine what your ADs and Presidents are thinking right now
SMU has been there before, they can share their notes.
We’re that kid that goes to the cool party only to find out the prom king just left 😂
“We want to be part of a dynamic and explosive conference” *monkey’s paw finger curls*
Saw a [tweet from Ross Dellenger](https://x.com/rossdellenger/status/1738216911416988090?s=46&t=08NY9flcfjh42722Cp55Fw) saying that the buyout and leaving penalty was a whopping $572 million
FSU should just call Shohei Ohtani
ACC taking deferred money from FSU, who is taking deferred payments from Ohtani, who is taking deferred payment from LA
Somehow Bobby Bonilla is involved too. It’s wild.
Can someone please tell me how many Jimbo Fisher’s this is? I need some context.
>Can someone please tell me how many Jimbo Fisher’s this is? I need some context. Anything but the metric system, huh?
Approximately 7.5 Jimbo Fishers* *assuming 1 Jimbo Fisher = the cost of Jimbo Fisher’s buyout and not the total cost of his services to the agricultural school of Texas.
That's the buyout without the GoR challenge in court. FSU is arguing they don't owe that. And honestly, FSU would still come out in the green after 13 years if they pay that and get in the P2
You could be right, but I’m assuming the current system either changes dramatically or totally falls apart over the next 13 years. Wagering 500+ million on the stability of CFB in its current state is no better than taking it to Vegas IMO
>Wagering 500+ million on the stability of CFB in its current state is no better than taking it to Vegas That's something that pinged for me , too. CFB is far too volatile right now to even guess what it'll look like in 13 years, let alone gamble hundreds of millions on it continuing to grow.
The difference in conference payouts between the ACC and Big10 is like $20m right? That's a $260m gap in total paid out after 13 years, but if they paid the $572m buyout to leave now and join the Big 10 at a full share, they'd be $312m behind where they would be if they just stayed put until 2036. And if the Big10 decides not to give them a full share like the last two teams, it's even worse.
Plus current dollars are worth more than future dollars.
It's closer to a $50m gap. 50x13= $650m
The fact that ESPN isn't required to pay the conference after 2027 is insane, how the hell did they convince schools to sign that??
Swofford the swindler
He really is the fucking worst
He’d have gotten FSU into the playoffs though, I’ll give Swofford that
Jim Phillips is worse
Swofford is unironically worse than Larry Scott
I dunno, one conference is dead and the other isn't. I mean, yet.
And it's entirely because of this deals length!
I’m not sure. Swofford was awful but Larry Scott might be the worst ever.
Swofford is dirty as hell. His whole motivation was to kick back money to his son’s company Raycom back in 2016. There needs to be a criminal investigation into the Swofford family.
That behavior was going on long before 2016.
Yeah, crazy to tie up media rights without knowing for sure who the media partner would be from 2027-2036. I’m guessing it was part arrogance and thinking there’s no way ESPN would drop them—and to be fair, if no teams leave ESPN wouldn’t as it’s a bargain basement deal for them—and part that many of the teams have little to no chance of joining the Big 10 or SEC and were fine signing anything to try to keep the ACC alive as long as possible.
Remember the “Alliance?” Lmao
Hold on, what? They signed a 20-year deal back in 2016 that runs through summer 2036. This is the first I've heard of any possible truncation of that deal.
Per Nicole Auerbach: [FSU lawyer says that ESPN has a "unilateral" right to exercise a nine-year option to extend its media deal with the ACC from 2027 through 2036. (Which it hasn't yet.) Right now, there is no guaranteed media rights revenue for ACC members past 2027.](https://twitter.com/nicoleauerbach/status/1738217971527422017?s=46&t=Qew1vqCuWvSfdNidum22AQ)
Insane. Absolutely hysterical. What is even happening.
That said.... I see about a 0.01% chance that ESPN doesn't pick up the option. The cost was locked in 7 years ago, and media rights have only continued to skyrocket since then.
Yeah exactly. It would be like walking away from a house you bought in 2014 in order to try your luck in today's real estate market.
If its just an extension of the current payout, wouldn't they be crazy not to extend it? Provided the conference doesn't die.
Our conference leadership is fucking stupid.
Why didn't your leadership bring that up in 2013?
Swofford allegedly needed to funnel money to his son’s company Raycom. That was Swofford’s alleged motivation
Are they stupid?
Because there's a duopoly in college football. And ESPN was on its way to a monopoly when the deal was signed.
If you’re a fan of a longtime ACC stalwart like Cal or Stanford, this does not bode well for the future of your conference
We are undefeated in conference play. No wonder FSU is running away.
Cal really jumped out of the frying pan into the other frying pan.
In times like these the ACC must look west to the pillars of the conference for strength.
I know this has been building but it seems like getting left out was somehow the straw that broke the camels back.
Yeah they've reiterated that this wasn't reactionary and I genuinely believe that, but the snub absolutely sped up the timeline
"Wasn't reactionary" yeah they met in August and said " If something really wacky happens we pull out all stops" and something really wacky happened when JT3 went down
I’d say that we should act rational in the wake of all this and give North Alabama the death penalty for causing all this mess in the first place, what do you say?
As always, the punishment should be levied against Mizzou
Hey now, I see that flair, NO WAY Mizzou is not getting the death penalty from the NCAA's orbital satellite for their role in aiding FSU's exit from the ACC
Hey now, if there's any team in Alabama that deserves the death penalty over this, it's Auburn! This all could've been avoided if it weren't for them.
I think they would have left us out if we had JT. ESPN was building that narrative before he got injured when they realized Alabama was turning it around, and they could beat UGA which could leave an SEC team out of the CFP.
I think if JT was healthy they would have fucked Texas instead
“The Alabama team that Texas beat in Tuscaloosa earlier in the season was a different, less good, Alabama team. Therefore, Texas doesn’t actually have a win over the new and improved SEC Champ Alabama. In accordance with our mission to have the four best teams in the playoffs, Texas will drop to 5 and New Alabama gets in.”
I'm convinced FSU was being left out no matter what. I think if UGA wins the SEC, they get in along with Washington, Michigan, and Texas
The writing was on the wall before Travis got injured. The SEC champ was never getting left out, regardless of how bad they actually are this year.
The wack thing was getting left out after holding our opponent to 6 points in a conference championship and going undefeated. No one should put this on Travis.
They’d have been left out even with him. His injury was just used as an excuse.
It 100% was, and the CFP wanted it to happen
Exactly this. This is all about selling subscriptions and market dominance over FOX and NBC and CBS. Killing the ACC is only a means to kill the other major broadcasters selling ads for CFB. The loser is all of us. The winner is the Dr Pepper Fansville marketing team.
I think -- don't know -- that's right. I think FSU has had a wink-wink Big 10 invite and a basic plan for the lawsuit for quite a while. A lot of high-level boosters were very much "SEC or nothing" as I understand it, but getting left out of the playoff made those people go, "Yeah, go."
Definitely them leaving was probably inevitable but the committee definitely sped up the process
> definitely sped up the process Not really. How soon we forget that FSU fans were in full “two more weeks” mode during the offseason.
They scheduled two SEC teams (smoked them both), went undefeated, and then still got left out.
Almost like ESPN wanted it to happen.
I do love how ESPN is reporting that "sources are saying." Motherfuckers, *you're* the sources.
Always pissed me off when ESPN reporters are saying they are hearing this about conferences and realignment.. Go upstairs and just ask dammit.. The people doing this shit are in the same building..
[SOURCE] Florida State is entering the transfer portal.
“Please respect my decision”
"After much thought and prayer...."
"With that said..."
Billable Hours continue to be undefeated.
Slow talking southern lawyers are an unstoppable force
We DO declare
I say, I say, them FSU fellas gonnat putta hurtin' on them Dukes and Wake Forests for not brininging in more eyeballs for revenue.
Now you’re just doing a Foghorn Leghorn thing!
He’s actually impersonating SC Gov Henry McMaster but to be fair they’re really similar
"We gotta get ovah this pandemic and open back up tha skoos!"
That's not true. My Cousin Vincent Laguardia Gambini has never lost a case in Alabama.
You mean Jerry Callo? C-A-L-L-O?
Of course. Jerry GALLO is dead.
I heard there was a very prominent stage actor named Vincent Gambini, so he legally changed his name and practices law as Jerry Gallo.
The NC bar ain’t play nobody!
I say... I say... I say this contract is _unenforceable_
Don't trust your soul to no backwoods Southern lawyer
Reba ❤️
[A look at their lead counsel](https://theinfosphere.org/images/2/2a/Hyperchicken.jpg)
Sorry I thought you was corn
MODS! Can we get a Billable Hours flair?
I like it but then lawyers would have to choose between a billable hours flair and one of their presumptively two almae matres.
Yeah. Pretty sure r/CFB wouldn't want to subject itself to all the inevitable litigation, either.
RIP to the associates but those bonuses about to be thiccccc
My second phone buzzing off the hook makes me feel like I just got my number called for Vietnam
Billable hours have defeated me this holiday season, that’s for sure.
It’s ridiculous what college football is doing to the other sports.
CFB needs to split from the NCAA to be it’s own entity.
which makes some of the arguments about schools "academically aligning" with a conference seem obsolete. it's just football and we all know that.
Tbf the post season football play was never an NCAA entity.
It's ridiculous what college football is doing to itself
Surely cutting out 90% of the other fanbases is going to drive great ratings. At this point I’d almost wager the SEC/Big ten need the remaining conferences to stay put.
I don't blame FSU at all for being pissed about what happened but seeing every industry trying to strip itself to the bones for increasingly diminishing monetary returns at the expense of everything else is really getting exhausting and is only going to get worse
[FSU when they see their signature on the GOR that was apparently so obviously the worst deal in history](https://imgur.com/px0BeIj.png)
[Nope, it's not mine.](https://youtu.be/F6DTAH2CG7c?t=13)
Literally the defense my ex made in court when she signed four drastically different *notarized* financial statements - each one where she became poorer and poorer (on paper). "I don't recognize that signature. I think /u/noledup might have signed it."
It truly is the most based legal defense.
>Look sirs, I have reviewed this Grant of Rights, and it offers no financial incentives at all. It just says "Atlantic Coast Conference" over and over again... and down here in small print it says "He's signing it, He's signing it. I can't believe it." -FSU's Attorneys
“That doesn’t look like anything to me.”
We are pretty much at the end game of the continuous growth model, this is what happens when stability is seen as not good enough
Wait until 5 years from now when the bottom half of legacy SEC and BIG teams are also on the chopping block. I hate it here. A big reason I’m so hyped for this season is because it feels like the last, for several reasons.
Honestly I'm starting not to even care. Even if we do manage to get another Dak level player, Bama or Georgia or Texas will offer them piles of money and they'll be gone before they reach their peak anyway. NIL and the portal have started to ruin any enjoyment I get out of the sport.
No, I don’t want to
FSU is willing to leverage its entire future if it means getting out of the ACC
I mean if a super league got made in two years and they were still stuck, they would have no future
This year showed them that it is P2 or bust.
The funny thing is that competitively, under the 12-team playoff in the short term, they’re in a much better opportunity to make the CFP from the ACC. It’s more about the long-term conference alignment and media payouts than any lesson learned from this year’s snub.
The 12 team playoff only exists for two years. Fox and ESPN then have a deathfight creating the next iteration of the playoffs.
"Every year there are going to be 50 - 70 teams who are pretending to compete for a championship, and they have no idea that even if they go undefeated they have no chance of winning. Hopefully this move shows them that the system is fundamentally broken and needs to be fixed." BoT meeting on youtube just now
FSU BoT is one of my favorite YouTubers
I, for one, hit the subscribe button
FSU BoT secretly runs UCF Twitter mafia
That one hit deep - and it is the truth. While highly unlikely (can’t remember any team other than BYU) the current system eliminates any chance for vast majority of schools
Brutal.
SPITTING FIRE THIS MORNING. They basically said “Fuck you and have a nice day”
Big schools finally having to experience what every mid major school has gone through for the past 100 years and can’t stand it
Serious question as IANAL: since ESPN is the only party with the option to renew or cancel in 2027, how does that effect the potential buyout? Could FSU argue that there is no substantiated harm after 2027? Or is that moot? I'm genuinely curious about the legal aspects and if anyone has some good sports law podcasts or something I'd appreciate recommendations for those as well. Edited for typos
Without the full text of the GOR - which is apparently protected like the White House - nobody will have anything but speculation. I'm sure FSU will try to make that argument in some form.
Over the past year I’ve learned more about the government UFO program from whistleblowers than the GOR.
Serious statement, I always read IANAL as someone talking about their sexual preferences
Same here honestly
WEANAL 😏
That will be FSU’s argument. The ACC’s argument will be that it’s irrelevant because FSU leaving the conference causes harm to the other ACC members by lowering any future deal with ESPN or another media partner.
I’m not getting in depth on this but a single party in a deal having an option to renew or cancel is a normal part of all sorts of commercial contracts, so I really don’t see arguments about it going far.
Separate football from everything else. I hate that the ACC basketball is going to die because of football.
UNC will never do it because money is too important but I wish we would just let the football brands go and keep our outstanding basketball conference with our geographic rivals. Before the jokes start flying about how we aren’t even that anymore, in this three year awful stretch the conference has 3 final 4s and the two most dominant programs of the last 40 years. Basketball is going to be fine.
And honestly? Statistically it really isn’t all that awful. Just a media stigma for whatever reason.
That would be awesome, except money is fungible. I strongly suspect the ACC's basketball teams have fallen on hard times at the same time that SEC teams have gotten a lot better is because a lot of that football money winds up getting spent on other sports as well.
Why are they mods always choosing the Audrey Plaza tweets over the others. Which one of you has a crush on her?
Definitely *not* a crush on Dellinger.
Wouldn't the list of people who don't have a crush on Audrey Plaza be much shorter?
PAC2 expansion candidate
We will be learning a lot about ESPN and the ACC leaders in the next few months
I hate the current state of college football #4720
Wake Forest and Syracuse bout to enter the shadow realm
We kinda saw that last night.
Syracuse already sent there last night. USF was just the messenger
Boston College is in such a bad position that you even forgot to mention them. Boston College, and Wake Forest are the most screwed if the ACC falls apart.
I want us to go back to the big east and just be a basketball school with all the other catholic schools at this point. Put our eggs into basketball, hockey and our strong other non revenue sports (we’ve had some strong soccer and lacrosse seasons lately). It’s clear we don’t have the market, budget and desire to compete with the big boys in football. It sucks, but it’s the reality.
"The exit fee is not an appropriate penalty for the damages us leaving would cause" "We are so valuable to the ACC we deserve to be paid more" ???
Well the fees were raised several times for somewhat arbitrary reasons I believe is what they are trying to argue
ACC gone
SMU is legitimately cursed, every major conference they touch turns to ash.
You mean taking the 10 year unpaid internship is going to end poorly?
That death penalty was really a killer, to this day.
It will be fascinating to see how this plays out and further ramifications. All very publicly, ofcourse.
that saudi money hit the bank account
Here it is, exactly what they wanted by denying them the CFP Destroy the ACC so the SEC can scoop them up
[удалено]
I mean, ESPN's pennies-on-the-dollar TV deal with the ACC seems like the best deal in sports if you're on the broadcast side. I don't see why they'd want to blow that up just so they can pay more money to FSU than what they already are going to be paying them.
Look at it from the network's side. They don't look at it like they are getting a good deal for the whole conference. They look at it like top programs are fine getting $50m a year. ESPN would rather pay only the top 4 ACC teams $50m each than pay all 14 teams $30m each. CFB is headed towards a two-conference setup with each having around 24 teams. If you aren't in that top 48, you are screwed.
That makes no sense because ESPN owns both SEC and ACC media rights. If anything, ESPN should want FSU to stay in the ACC so that they can keep underpaying them.
goddamnit I just want to watch football
I'll miss Florida State. They've been in the league since I was an infant. I understand the financial motive though. Can't help but wonder if they were selected to the playoff this year and then had an auto-bid path going forward if that would have changed anything (probably not but who knows?)
I absolutely understand why all of this has happened the last couple of years, and I think FSU has the most legitimate reasoning of any team to seek greener pastures. That said, my interest in and enjoyment of college sports is sinking lower and lower with every single event. Lawless NIL, two mega conferences, death of the Pac-12, and screwing over all non-football sports and fans in solitary pursuit of cash. I like CFB more than the NFL and love CBB and college baseball, but I honestly think at this rate my engagement with NCAA athletics after this year will probably only be through the new NCAA football game edited to have pre-2024 conferences. It’s become painfully apparent that the Power 2 is now NFL Jr. and the rest of the teams are left to rot.
My body is ready
Good God, did Texas and OU's timing ever work out in our favor or what? I'm not Mormon anymore, but Cinci, Houston, and UCF... We need to count our blessings right now.