'An existential crisis': Florida State president, Board of Trustees low on ACC future

While conference realignment was not on the agenda at Wednesday's Florida State Board of Trustees Meeting at the Westcott Building Conference Room, it was on the minds of everyone in the room.

And probably the nearly 2,000 who watched the meeting's live stream.

None of the Trustees were present in person but rather talked over a Zoom video conference call, including Florida State University president Richard McCullough, chairman Peter Collins, as well as athletics director Michael Alford and vice president for legal affairs and general counsel Carolyn Egan.

Florida State's future in the Atlantic Coast Conference continues to be a hot topic around the college football landscape.

And the Seminoles' message hasn't changed:

Their future in the conference appears tenuous at best.

McCullough spoke on the future of FSU near the end of the meeting, sparking a discussion about the future of the conference within the board.

"We of course are not satisfied with our current situation," McCullough said. "We love the ACC. We love our partners at ESPN. Our goal would be to continue 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 was a major change in the revenue distribution within the conference in the ACC conference itself."

Any school planning to leave the ACC in the next year would have to notify the conference in writing by Aug. 15. Trustee Justin Roth, who said he doesn’t see things working with the ACC, said he could call for FSU to form an exit plan from the conference in the next 12 months.

"We're working hard on it as you know, and we'll be back to you," Collins said about a potential timeline of FSU's next decision. "It could be sooner rather than later."

The agenda for the meeting dealt mostly with approving budget and fund proposals, including: the 2024-2025 Legislative Budget Request; 2023-24 Linking Industry to Nursing Education (LINE) Fund Proposals; Creation of Direct Support Organization; Seminole Boosters, Inc. Loan.

Conference realignment talk continues to heat up for Florida State, others

Conference realignment chatter and speculation continue to dominate national headlines.

According to Yahoo's Dan Wetzel, the Big Ten has begun preliminary talks to add Oregon, Washington, California and Stanford.

"We pride ourselves in having the very best resources providing the very best student-athlete experience that we possibly can, that we're here in an educational mission to guide these students to perform in the classroom, to perform in their sports, to go out and perform in the community and represent us well in really guide them," Alford said.

"So when they go back to their hometowns, they're going to be great citizens, and have that learning experience because this is the most incredible time of their lives. while they're in college. and without those resources to provide these opportunities for them. We would be failing in our mission."

Former FSU quarterback and current board member Drew Weatherford chimed in with his reaction to all of the ongoing conversations.

"Simple question, fundamental question. Do we want to play games moving forward or do we want it to compete?" Weatherford asked.

"It's a really simple question and I think I know the answer from the board. And you know that the president did a really good job of laying out the state of play that we're currently in. But I've thought about this a lot as an ex-player, as now a board of trustee member.

"The simple fact is the cost of planning at the highest level is outpacing the ACC's ability to compete on a regular basis. If you go back and look at how many wins ACC schools have had and the college football playoff right, who other than Clemson has had meaningful wins, right?

"I mean, it's, it's not like we have to look into the future to be concerned. We're living in the present and there are reasons to be concerned about our ability to compete, year in and year out."

Alford has been gunning for a new revenue distribution model that rewards schools that bring the league a more significant share of the wealth, he stated at the ACC spring meetings his preference is to stay in the ACC.

Alford said he fears the ACC is in danger of falling behind both the SEC and Big Ten in revenue by about $30 million per year when their respective new television contracts start (Big Ten in 2023, SEC in 2024).

"We have an average viewership of 3.2 million viewers on average," McCullough said. "We're one of the best media value teams in the United States. We in many ways along with the edge that comes from others but helped to carry the value of media rights in the ACC no offense to my colleagues, but that's just the numbers.

"And that's the best we have some of the greatest fans in the entire world. We have a storied tradition of Florida State University we currently as you all know, face a very difficult situation. We are seeing large media deals have been made with places like the Big Ten and the SEC, which in many ways are creating.

"It's an exaggeration but an existential crisis perhaps for Florida State University, as we will be $30 million per school per year. Behind in our gap and conference distribution with our with, you know, contractual with contracts that are said to go through 2036.

"So, this current situation presents a very difficult situation for us. Because we are investing in things like football, football, and basketball, bringing in the most revenue which actually supports all the rest of the sports without increasing revenue will face major challenges and being able to compete in football."

While conference realignment is mainly thought to impact football, it has repercussions beyond the gridiron.

"By the way, the waterfall of revenue falls down to support things like women's soccer, women's softball," McCullough said. "Title IX sports will be could be completely affected in a very dramatic way."

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).