ACC Realignment Megathread

[Sophandros]

https://www.espn.com/college-football/s ... ain-future

This thread will be moved if this leads to an opportunity for Tulane to move to the ACC.

[Sophandros]

https://twitter.com/BudElliott3/status/ ... 3Fpage%3D1

I expect the FSU Board of Trustees to approve a legal filing Friday — the first step in an exit from the ACC.

[Sophandros]

With FSU Board approval, legal experts believe that the school will seek a "declaratory judgement action" in an effort to have a judge rule that it is not bound by the ACC's Grant-of-Rights.

Such a ruling could open the door for more programs to exit

https://twitter.com/RossDellenger/statu ... de%3Dfalse

[Sophandros]

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-florid ... 50710.html

Florida State is expected to soon start the process of its long-discussed divorce from the ACC, multiple sources told Yahoo Sports.

[LawGreenie]

Where are they going to go? SEC coaches can't be happy when they saw the new schedules. Do they really want another team? The Big 10 is already realizing the problems of a cross country conference -- do they want to add trips to north Florida?

[tulaneoutlaw]

Where are they going to go? SEC coaches can't be happy when they saw the new schedules. Do they really want another team? The Big 10 is already realizing the problems of a cross country conference -- do they want to add trips to north Florida?

You take the check, you take the losses. TV controls everything now. If Fox or ESPN want FSU, they'll have them and the schools that get pushed further down the pecking order can wipe their tears away with the dollars they get as compensation. Pretty soon the travel issues will solve themselves as schools decouple their football leagues from other sports.

The Big Ten would love access to the rich recruiting grounds of Florida, whether thru FSU or Miami. Will the SEC move to keep them out? And what happens to the other valuable pieces like Clemson and UNC? Those are now when questions, not ifs.

[LawGreenie]

Just taking a guess that the argument will be that the original intent of the grant of rights has been frustrated to the point of "impossibility" and asking the court to use something like a "cy pres" doctrine to reform the agreement. Reform meaning that FSU gets to leave if it can find a better deal.

The real tactical approach will be to force the ACC into an unfavorable forum where a Florida judge threatens a ruling that could throw the entire operation into chaos, or at least stalemate, with inconsistent judgments, TROs, and other bits of lawyerly nastiness. To say nothing of the legal bills -- the PIF forced the PGA to the table simply by the threat of endless litigation. The end result would be to let FSU out of the grant of right for a certain sum of money less than what would be due if they just left while the grant of rights was still in place.

Two wild cards are interesting -- this is no longer just a Tobacco Road issue. We have the People's Republic of California and Make SMU Great Again with seats at the table.

And of course, the networks. All for a team that isn't that far removed from losing at home to Jacksonville State.

[Wavefan]

I think fsu overvalues fsu. If they can bluff and bulldog into a better conference situation then good for them but they may end up trading a decent but not top tier conference (acc) for another decent but not top tier conference (whatever the former big 12 ends up being called). In the end it is all fluid and what is best today almost certainly will be different in five to ten years.

[Sophandros]

FSU is challenging the GOR and the buyout.

This means ACC realignment is like Donkey Kong!

[PeteRasche]

FSU is challenging the GOR and the buyout.

This means ACC realignment is like Donkey Kong!

Is it time to start an "ACC Realignment" thread and see if it can reach 70 pages by next December?

[Sophandros]

FSU is challenging the GOR and the buyout.

This means ACC realignment is like Donkey Kong!

Is it time to start an "ACC Realignment" thread and see if it can reach 70 pages by next December?

Let's do this!

[nolasilver]

It will be fascinating to see how it unfolds. I think they just want to bulldog their way into a settlement with the acc. But of course the acc wants to make an example out of them.

[tjtlja]

What we all want is 2-3 teams join Florida State in this maneuver to escape the ACC. Not getting into the playoffs started this ball rolling. I hope they, and anyone else, get out of the ACC tomorrow. And then send us the invite asap.

[tufinal4]

I wonder if FSU, if they wind up getting a satisfactory revenue sharing formula change & stay in the ACC, might be supportive of adding Tulane, maybe as part of a 3 team package including Cincinnati and West Virginia. FSU has historically been favorable towards Tulane, their people love to come here. We're closer geographically to them than any existing ACC member.

Cincy & WV are geographic outliers in the Big 12, with no rivals. In the ACC they would be together with Louisville, UVA, VA Tech etc. The ACC would weaken the Big 12 & strengthen themselves. They'd add recruiting hotbeds of Louisiana & Ohio, both existing SEC & Big 10 territories.

The ACC has long been a mix of very top tier academic schools (Duke, UVA, GA Tech, UNC) & top football oriented schools who are more middle of road academically (FSU, Clemson, Louisville). Tulane, Cincinnati and WV represent just such a mix and would fit very well. This might have a lot of appeal to FSU and make up for their dissatisfaction with the last round of Cal, Stanford & SMU.

[Roller]

What we all want is 2-3 teams join Florida State in this maneuver to escape the ACC. Not getting into the playoffs started this ball rolling. I hope they, and anyone else, get out of the ACC tomorrow. And then send us the invite asap.

When rats are deserting a sinking ship is not the time to climb aboard that ship.

[PeteRasche]

What we all want is 2-3 teams join Florida State in this maneuver to escape the ACC. Not getting into the playoffs started this ball rolling. I hope they, and anyone else, get out of the ACC tomorrow. And then send us the invite asap.

When rats are deserting a sinking ship is not the time to climb aboard that ship.

It is when the ship you're on is almost fully capsized and the captain (who was a steadfast leader through the sinking and fought the good fight against an unbeatable tide) has announced he's not sticking around to go down with it.

[tulaneoutlaw]

I think some of you are misreading what fsu cares about. The time for the acc to do something about the football situation is long past. Short of being very proactive and trying to add actual football powers like Oklahoma and Texas a decade or more ago, the acc is not a serious football league, not in the way the sec or big ten are. They don't have the money and they have only 2, maybe 3, schools that are actual title contenders. Schools like Syracuse and bc and now the new adds are free riders weighing down fsu and putting them farther behind the top teams in the sec and b10 in terms of resources. True, those leagues have free riders too, but for now the money is so good its tolerable especially relative to the acc situation.

Fsu wants to play for and win National titles, something that will only get harder in the acc. Yeah the 12 team playoff might give them regular access in that league, but the ability to get top flight recruits or have much margin for error (as demonstrated this year their margin was one injury) is much lower than being in a p2 league. Its not about making the playoff as it might be for 115 of the current 133 schools. Its about actually winning the thing. There is 0 chance fsu is sticking around. Maybe they can't get out this year or next, but they won't be in the acc in 2027 nor will they be advocating for any half measure like changed revenue distributions or adding us and some mid tier big 12 teams. The only cure for their ache is an sec or b10 invite, which they will get as soon as they are able to free themselves of the acc GoR one way or another. Until then the p2 leagues will remain silent for fear of a tampering lawsuit from the acc, but either will absolutely want fsu as one of the last premier football properties up for grabs in the sport.

BTW none of that means I don't want to be in the acc asap. It's still much better to be in the leftovers (assumong 10-12 of those teams stick together) of that league than where we are now

[Sophandros]

https://twitter.com/bluebloodsbias/stat ... aVlrvz-rVg

BREAKING: Several ACC Schools are expected to follow Florida State's lead & file LAWSUITS against the ACC

These schools reportedly include Clemson, Miami, UNC, NC State, Virginia, & Virginia Tech, among others

Could get very interesting to see where everyone ends up after this. Do the schools who remain try to pull in us, Memphis, USF/FAU, etc?

[tjtlja]

I presume there is a scenario where every school in the league follows FSU just to renegotiate the GOR and how TV money is distributed to each of the existing members.

[speckled trout]

I’m no legal expert but I find it amusing that one of Florida State’s main arguments is that SMU and Calford are worthless

[Sophandros]

Apparently ESPN has an option to extend the ACC's contract in 2025, so that might explain the timing of this suit.

I saw an interesting take which has the following schools in play for the new ACC. Schools are sorted in each group by likelihood of membership and schools in italics are in ACC as if 2024:

Legacy ACC: BC, Syracuse, Wake Forest, Duke, and Georgia Tech

Legacy Pac 12: Stanford, Cal, Oregon State, Washington State

Legacy AAC: SMU, Tulane, Memphis, Tulsa, USF, Navy

Sun Belt: Appalachian State

Independents: UConn, Army

MWC: All of it

CUSA: NMSU

My take is that a conference with the remnants of the ACC listed above plus Washington State, Oregon State, Tulane, Memphis, USF, and UConn would be a solid league of 14.

[PeteRasche]

Just as with the PAC all last summer, the new conference will all come down to who TV networks deem worth throwing money at, and how much. Obviously any combo missing FSU, Clemson, UNC, etc., is going to get less than the current ACC. Possibly only slightly more than the current AAC contract. If they have any intent of trying to salvage a "power" name, there aren't enough schools to add to make it a mega-sized league. Honestly my guess is Tulane, USF, and Memphis, and possibly one or two out west if they're all-in on the coast-to-coast thing. The only way the AAC goes big AND retains power status is if they somehow steal from the Big 12, which, in light of the Big 12's "got our huge TV deal in under the deadline just before the TV money started shrinking", is unlikely.

[tulaneoutlaw]

One thing that is helpful for osu and wsu out west is they've now packaged all their sports with the west coast conf except football (and technically baseball might stay indy driven by or st being a power in that sport) That makes them much better bets for an acc still looking.

A new acc with Oregon st, wazzou, cal, Stanford, Tulane, Memphis, smu, usf, bc, Syracuse, Pitt, wake, Duke and gt is a decent league. Certainly a clear 4th in football with a chance to compete for 3rd with the b12 and a competitive multi bid basketball conference. Who knows, if brands like nc st and Louisville don't find another home that just makes the above league even stronger

[Sophandros]

This is a step toward the consolidation into a P2 before forming a super league.

The five remnants will have to realize that they want to remain in existence as a football league for those revenue dollars while still maintaining a basketball presence for those dollars. Having a foothold in LA and FL will help with the former while bringing in Memphis will help with the latter.

[PeteRasche]

Ironically, outlaw's post above reminded me of the first time I really noticed** a split and an "unsplit" of "big" schools between football and other sports... And it was FSU (driving this whole thread) and Virginia Tech (our bowl opponent in a few days). Back then we were in the Metro basketball conference with both, with everyone being independent in football. In 1991, FSU left entirely and went to the ACC so they'd have football and other sports together. Virginia Tech stayed in the Metro in basketball but joined the new Big East in football, along with Miami, Syracuse, Boston College, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Temple and Rutgers. I remember thinking how weird it seemed that VT would stay in the Metro in basketball, but be in another conference (one that also had basketball!) in football.

**I'm young relative to lots of posters here and I'm sure there are other examples prior to this, no need to digress into the list...