Florida State always seemed out of place in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
A football school in a league long renowned for its basketball prowess.
Now, the Seminoles want out. Divorce is inevitable, but the split figures to be anything but amicable.
The salvos fired Friday, when the Florida State board of trustees voted to begin legal proceedings to escape the ACC without having to pay a staggering departure fee, showed just how nasty this fight is likely to be.
Not surprising, since the stakes are enormous for both sides.
The ACC is vowing to hold Florida State to its end of the bargain over television rights, which would force the Seminoles to come up with a staggering pile of cash — the school’s legal counsel put the figure at $572 million — just to head for the exit ramp.
But if the Seminoles do find a more realistic pathway, perhaps through a sympathetic court ruling, it could send the ACC tumbling into the same death spiral that quickly erased the storied Pac-12 from the major college landscape.
Clemson and North Carolina could quickly follow Florida State’s lead, especially since they joined the Seminoles in voting against the ACC taking in Pac-12 refugees Stanford and California — way out on the Pacific coast — along with Dallas-based SMU for no apparent reason other than providing a convenient spot to meet up with the faraway newcomers.
The last straw to a relationship that has been rocky for years, it would seem, was Florida State being left out of the four-team College Football Playoff — the first time a major conference champion with a perfect 13-0 record has been snubbed.
The school said that was not a direct factor, but it certainly didn’t help smooth things over.
“It is becoming painfully apparent that Florida State’s athletic ambitions and institutional priorities are no longer served by the ACC’s leadership,” university President Richard McCullough said.
The ACC quickly shot back, pointing out that Florida State willingly signed on to a 2016 agreement granting control of television rights to the league through 2036.
While that arrangement quickly became outdated as the Southeastern Conference and Big 12 landed much more lucrative media contracts, the ACC says a deal’s a deal.
“Each university has benefited from this agreement, receiving millions of dollars in revenue and neither Florida State nor any other institution, has ever challenged its legitimacy,” the ACC said in a statement. “It is especially disappointing that FSU would choose to pursue this unprecedented and overreaching approach.”
One thing that could work in favor of Florida State’s legal case: While the league holds control over media rights through 2036, it was revealed Friday that the current deal with ESPN extends to just 2027.
The network has the right to exercise a nine-year option, but the Seminoles will surely point out to the court that they shouldn’t be bound to a deal with no guarantees.
If Florida State is successful in bolting from the ACC, the next big question: Where do the Seminoles end up?
When the earliest rumblings of the super conference era were felt more than three decades ago, it seemed inevitable that Florida State would eventually land in the SEC.
The Seminoles’ top rival was — and still is — the SEC’s Florida Gators, the team they meet at the end of every football regular season. FSU’s Tallahassee campus was — and still is — a perfect fit within the league’s geographical footprint.
In fact, when the SEC presidents voted to authorize expansion way back in 1990, Florida State among the six schools identified as potential new members, along with Texas, Texas A&M, Miami, South Carolina and Arkansas.
Turns out, South Carolina and Arkansas were the only schools to join in the initial wave. Missouri and Texas A&M followed. Next season, the SEC will grow to a 16-team league when Oklahoma and Texas join the fold.
Florida State hooked up with the ACC in 1991, figuring it was better to be the big fish in a small football pond rather taking on the stiffer competition in the SEC. In the beginning, that was undoubtedly the prudent move.
The Seminoles started their ACC tenure with nine straight league championships and two national titles under coach Bobby Bowden. After Jimbo Fisher took over as coach, another national championship followed during the 2013 season.
Still, despite hoarding 16 ACC titles over 32 seasons in the league, it seemed inevitable that Florida State would eventually find its way to the more like-minded SEC.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
For now, the SEC has shown no strong interest in adding the Seminoles, with any opposition sure to be led by a Florida contingent that worries its influence within the Sunshine State might be weakened by allowing FSU into its powerhouse league.
Those sort of attitudes could work against Clemson, as well, if the Tigers decide to bolt from the ACC. Their biggest rival, South Carolina, would surely be reticent to have another state school under the SEC banner, especially since Clemson has had far more success on the gridiron than the Gamecocks.
The only other logical landing spot for Florida State (and Clemson or North Carolina, for that matter), would be the Big Ten, which will grow into a coast-to-coast, 18-team behemoth next year when Southern Cal, UCLA, Washington and Oregon come aboard.
The Big Ten would undoubtedly jump at the chance to gain a beachhead right in the middle of SEC country if Florida State comes looking for a home.
Of course, the SEC could be putting up its best poker face, content with the way things are for now if Florida State and Clemson stay put — but ready to spring into action if the Big Ten comes sniffing around its territory.
Amid all the uncertainty, this much is clear:
The Seminoles never seemed a good fit for the ACC.
Now, there’s no chance of a reconciliation.
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Paul Newberry is the national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at pnewberry@ap.org
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