<p>FSU Board of Trustees chairman Haggard said he wants to talk with Big 12 in interview with Warchant, and coach Jimbo Fisher today said he wants FSU to consider joining Big 12–this whole deal is past the rumors stage. Big money trumps academics!</p>
<p>That’s big news. If they weren’t interested, Coach Fisher would have said so in no uncertain terms. </p>
<p>If FSU leaves, how does the 20 million dollar exit fee get paid? Is the Big12 gonna pick up the tab? That’s a lot of money for a school that just took a sixty million dollar haircut.</p>
<p>Who’s on first? FSU president Barron said last night FSU isn’t interested in Big 12, despite what Jimbo and Haggard said. Maybe FSU will simply use all the Big 12 talk as a bargaining chip at ACC annual meeting starting today in Amelia Island to negotiate getting 3rd tier TV rights for football? A guy I know at the 7-11 near me says FSU will stay in ACC!</p>
<p>’“Florida State University regrets that misinformation about the provisions of the ACC contract has unnecessarily renewed the controversy and speculation about university’s athletic conference alignment,” his statement read. “Of course, any university would examine options that would impact university academics, athletics or finances. At the same time, Florida State is not seeking an alternative to the ACC nor are we considering alternatives.”’</p>
<p>That’s hardly a Sherman Statement :)</p>
<p>It sounds like the coach and the BOT would be interested, and the president is willing to “examine options.” I definitely wouldn’t write this one off.</p>
<p>FSU, Clemson, VT, GT to the Big 12-- for the $$'s. UNC, Duke, Maryland and UVA to the B1G via Big Ten commis Jim Delany (former UNC basketballer)-- ^^^ the above AAU schools all. It could happen. ACC poooof! On a B1G Rivals board today.</p>
<p>The universities will have the U.S. Congress stepping in soon to sort out college athletics if things get much hairier–then we’ll have a real mess. Everyone needs to get there ducks lined up in short order.</p>
<p>It would be interesting if VaTech leaves. Didn’t the governor of Virginia basically force the ACC to take them in a few years ago?</p>
<p>I doubt the Tobacco Road schools would depart for the B1G. They are basketball schools. They are far more likely to cannibalize the remaining basketball schools in the Big East. At that point, the ACC will be the SEC of basketball and will be able to do their own thing.</p>
<p>The big losers in this scenario are the weaker, non-basketball schools in the Big East. USF is about to reap the karmic reward for blocking UCF from Big East conference for all those years when the Big East collapses.</p>
<p>The B1G loves basketball, don’t kid yourselves-- a package deal is what I’m hearing. Four (4) AAU schools in geographic proximity spreading BTN into the east, Virginia, Maryland, and the premier North Carolina schools-- flagship and Duke. The only drawback as I see it is the size of $ pie-- does the B1G pie get big enough to section it into 16 shares as opposed to the current 12 to get the existing B1G members to agree to it. The B1G utilizes a round table method where equality rules (gag, gag, please no Texas). </p>
<p>Curious, does UNC, Duke, UVA or Maryland play hockey beyond the “club” level. If no, it maybe a deal breaker!!</p>
<p>Geography does not favor the Tobacco Road schools joining the B1G. Schools like Duke and UNC don’t need the academic prestige, nor do their football programs bring in enough fans to really get the B1G interested. Plus, I’m not sure if the Duke/UNC Axis wants to lose their ability to dominate their conference by joining a group with UMich and OSU.</p>
<p>On the other hand, if Notre Dame was to throw their hat into the ring, they would be a nice geographic fit for a combined league. They could change the calculus.</p>
<p>SweetCroc-- I follow the B1G closely. The four schools (UNC, Duke, UVA and Maryland) have been discussed extensively as possibilities for B1G offers. Texas showed its’ me first mentality a couple years ago, and the B1G is not really interested. “Shake Down the Thunder” is another matter!</p>
<p>I think FSU is going to sit tight in the ACC simply because it is the right thing to do for the athletic program and all of FSU both financially and academically.</p>
<p>FSU president Barron in his memo released today made a good point about priorities for FSU. It is amazing to me how so many FSU “supporters” get all worked up about the $3 million in red ink in the FSU athletic program and also the recent athletic conference dustup, yet the same folks said next to nothing when the state reduced funding to FSU around $60 million this last legislative session and many tens of millions more the past few years. FSU folks should have been up in arms about funding reductions to FSU, not up in arms about the athletic program. Athletics is an important part of FSU, but academics should always be the first priority for FSU. Dr. Barron gets it.</p>
<p>TLassie-- You are preaching to the choir here! I like your priorities- academics first. The ACC has the potential to be a fabulous home for a fine public institution like FSU. FSU needs to hang tough, lead, and build the ACC into a balanced conference-- stability, history, culture first. </p>
<p>Going to be formally announced today-- SEC/Big 12 are going to have a conference owned New Year’s game between their top 2 schools. The game will be “bid” out to a current BCS bowl. This may impact FSU’s thinking about the Big 12 and membership. Also, this could set up a playoff between just 4 conferences-- the winner of the SEC/Big12 game and the winner of the B1G/Pac12 Rose Bowl game. FSU? The wheels must be turning thinking this new situation thru, and thru, and thru. ???</p>
<p>College football is starting to skate on thin ice with all the new proposals. 2 or 3 postseason games? I don’t see that happening. The football players are students, not professional athletes. College football players rightly should be paid good money if college teams start playing multiple post season games after full regular season in the fall. Why should the TV networks and colleges get all the money and student-athletes next to nothing other than college expenses paid for with scholarships?</p>
<p>FSU can still play in a four team playoff setup without leaving ACC. If college football and TV networks exclude too many teams from being able to get shot in a playoff setup by just allowing 4 athletic conferences to participate–Congress will step in after all the other shutout colleges and alumni squawk bigtime. Football independent Notre Dame sure wouldn’t go for 4 conference only national championship setup!</p>
<p>TLassie-- if a playoff system is set up, Notre Dame will be included in one of two ways-- (1) remaining an independent getting special treatment as is now the case, or (2) they will join the B1G or the Big 12. Notre Dame is a national TV brand period ($$). Culture too!</p>
<p>I like FSU’s place in the ACC for a number of reasons ^^^ as above. HOWEVER, if the B1G, Big 12, SEC, and Pac 12 expand to 16 teams each-- FSU will leave the ACC for either the Big 12 or SEC-- I’d place money on it. The national champ will be the winner of this 2 game playoff. As a professor myself, what I have just written concerns me plenty. We already have a situation where at certain schools, football players answer more to the football coach than to the algebra professor- - bad. And, just a fact.</p>
<p>Both FSU and Notre Dame have to carefully weigh all the angles with possible future athletic conference affiliations…so do most all other colleges too. </p>
<p>I would like to see FSU press the academically stronger schools in the ACC toward a B1G style exchange program. That would be a fair trade: FSU brings in the football money and helps keep the conference relevant while Duke and UNC can help improve FSUs access to research money. It might be worth sticking around for that.</p>
<p>It’s called the Committee for Institutional Cooperation (CIC) and it is a big deal. Not just the B1G’s 12 athletic schools but also the University of Chicago are included. Essentially, 13 schools collaborate in external grant writing activities,e.g., NIH, NSF, USOE proposals among others. Many people focused on the athletic topic (especially football) 2 years ago when Nebraska joined the B1G, but the really big deal from a $$'s perspective was immediate inclusion in the CIC-- Nebraska will be drawn up the academic pecking order in a rapid fashion. Doctoral programming may be handled in some areas across various B1G schools as well.</p>
<p>FSU would also benefit by pushing for a B1G – BTN TV network. BTN is actually owned by the B1G with revenues shared among the schools. Currently, Nebraska is buying into their portion of the BTN. They will be a full member in a view years with equal $$ each year.</p>
<p>SweetCroc-- ^^^ agree, stay and build the ACC. More $$ can be found elsewhere than
in football.</p>