A Wildcat fan here in peace. My question -- do you think the SEC will react if the Big Ten shows interest in Florida State? And by react, I mean offer the Seminoles membership? I ask because I've read a lot on this situation, and there seems to be a thread among leading media (Pete Thamel, Dennis Dobbs, etc.) that the SEC will move to prevent a B1G presence in Florida and invite/accept FSU. Thamel has made it clear that the SEC really doesn't want the Seminoles, but would take them if the above secenario happened. You lot are much closer to this situation than I (a Central PA resident surrounded by Nittany Lion fans), and I'd like your take. I hope and believe the SEC will be proactive -- offering UNC & UVA -- instead of accepting Sloppy Seconds. Good luck/good health to you and your teams in 2024.
I don’t think FSU is that attractive to the B1G without more teams coming along like Clemson or UNC. Why would Ohio St, Mich, Mich St, PSU, etc vote to bring in FSU when they could weaken a major recruiting competitor in one of the most talent rich states? B1G schools will be making twice as much as FSU in the next 13 years. If FSU goes independent they’ll need a major broadcasting partner like Notre Dame and NBC, but FSU doesn’t have 100+ years of a religious following like Notre Dame. FSU needs a lot more to go their way than just getting a bargain exit fee, that alone doesn’t guarantee the dollars they are chasing. They need legal help obviously and I believe they need a partner or two to get into one of the two big conferences.
FSU is not an AAU school currently which is a requirement to be in the Big 10. They’re supposedly working on achieving that status though. So maybe they do. I think that FSU and Clemson doesn’t offer the SEC anything. They’re already in those states so UNC and UVA would be more likely since it’ll expand them into new markets. And this whole thing about the Big 10 having a recruiting presence in Florida is just all bogus. Their schools recruit in Florida just fine without having a member university in the state.
If the plan was to keep the big10+8 out of the south then it won't work, if the SEC does something dumb like take fsu then Miami would be big10 bound. Our 60 point losers are going to end up in the big12 with ucf.
Ohio State signed the number 1 player in the country who was from Florida. Don't really think fsu being in the state of Florida helped them do that 1 iota. They obviously already have a recruiting presence in Florida. fsu's hubris is in thinking that if they leave the ACC automatically means the SEC or B1G is going to jump all over the opportunity to land them. What happens if neither conference shows interest in them? They will genuinely be screwed. They offer neither conference anything that's going to better the conference. They need to bite the bullet and stay in the ACC. Automatically deciding unilaterally that they should get the same money as teams in the B1G and SEC do is ludicrous.
I think there is some credence to the recruiting angle. I think having theOSU, UM, PSU, Oregon etc coming to Tallahassee to play would be more attractive to a recruit than say …BC, Pitt, VaTech and Syracuse.
I don’t think FSU would launch this legal crusade without having a few avenues of approach. I’m sure plan A is the SEC and plan B is the Big 10. Plan C is most likely the Big 12. They’re losing Texas and Oklahoma so the have some big shoes of prestige to fill. While FSU can’t fully fill that void, the Big 12 would be happy to get a spot in Florida as well as have a program that can at least partially replace the loss of Texas and OU. I do think that if the Big 10 wanted into Florida, then Miami would be their better ticket. Or the far less likely scenario of poaching UF from the SEC.
Those schools are already having good recruiting in Florida without a single conference team in the state. fsu in the B1G benefits fsu, not those schools you mentioned.
Big 12 is the most likely landing spot for fsu. Hope they enjoy their trips to Lawrence, Manhattan, Ames, Lubbock, Waco, Morgantown, etc. Those definitely will boost fsu's recruiting. What recruit wouldn't drool over the opportunity to go to those vacation sites, homes to some of the nation's historically greatest football powers.
The B1G requires AAU membership and that will not happen anytime soon for FSU or Clemson. I would imagine the SEC ran some calculations and determined that having Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC would offset competition by FSU and Clemson in the Big 12 or another conference.
The biggest problem for half assed u going to any conference is the cost to leave the acc and also the GoR. The exit fee is $120 million and then the GOR bill is $520 million. I do not see espn letting them out of the agreement since they do not broadcast the Big10 games. They have shot their wad imnso with the lawsuit as it will not leave them very many options
True. But they’re now lacking in true upper tier programs. They’re basically just the remnants of the Big 8, SWAC, and PAC-12. They need all the star power they can get.
F$U is nowhere close to joining the AAU. Research dollars especially in Medicine and Engineering are the biggest drivers. F$U Medical School doesn’t have its own research hospital and they share engineering with FAMU. Miami and USF were able to accomplish this in 2023 in big part through their medical schools and specialty hospitals (Jackson at Miami, Moffit in Tampa). Gotta remember the AAU has zero reasons to do F$U any favors and they don’t cave to pressure. No Hole lawyer or Tallahassee politician can lobby on their behalf or offer a good-ol-boy Southern redneck political favor. If you are not deemed worthy they don’t move a finger. And you can get kicked out at any time if you’re not keeping your end of the deal- example University of Nebraska. If they were to set the realistic goal of AAU admission, they may do it by 2036 when their ACC contract is up. But by then things will look a lot different in the college football landscape. Big10 may have no need for them there. On a football note last night exposed F$U agaisnt elite SEC competition. They beat us and LSU but our seasons proved each’s defense was Swiss cheese. They never would have been 13-0 with an SEC schedule. Never would have been 13-0 if they faced our upcoming 2024 schedule. And even though we shall never know for sure, when you get atomized to the tune of 63-3, there is no argument you can make in your favor other than “we shall never know for sure.” F$U’s best option is the ACC for now. My question is why doesn’t the conference re-negotiate its contract with ESPN and try to get a deal closer to what the SEC has? Can’t understand why the ACC wouldn’t want better for themselves.
As posted above, the B1G thinks they are "noble" and that academics are part of the process. There is NO WAY FSU (or Clemson) fits their model. The SEC wants eyeballs and neither FSU or Clemson delivers more of them in their respective states. The really only viable option is for a North Carolina school and a Virginia school to select the SEC, the other two go to the B1G and the rest go into the Big 12, which will be labelled the Big Leftovers. That is all there is because anything else would be a financial disaster.
Why would ESPN do that? They are locked in with the ACC and have a great compared to the SEC/B10 deals. Why pay more money to keep a weak conference together, when they know if it breaks up the top schools will just go to the other conferences.
I think the SEC has been eying UNC and Va Tech for a while. Both states would immediately become SEC country if we were to offer admission.
