We’ll see if they end up actually doing that.
Blue bloods have a way of getting out of these things without paying the full price, as we’ve all seen!
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If they figure out how to avoid paying those fees, then whoever their lawyer is should be president of the United States
The probably have entire law firms working on this. Unfortunately…only one person can be President.
Good question.
Maybe the portion that was given to it by the state (assuming the legislature allows it). The parts given to by donors? Unlikely. Those gifts often have strict requirements.
Also, their endowment is only 900M; their annual budget is $2.17B. Honestly, word from some of my colleagues who are FSU alum, one of their problems is that FSU is actually sort of a poor school, all things considered, and its alumni are not particularly wealthy (at least not yet). That could change, as one of its alumni is the heir apparent at Berkshire Hathaway!
This dude:
Going to be interesting watching it play out. I hope we are helped by the process and not harmed.
Not sure if “good”, but you can read it without a subscription.
http://www.theterritory.org/phorum/list.php?5
Ah, my mistake.
Anyway, here is what Ross Dellinger has to say:
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
Comments?
Stanford, Cal & SMU are going…
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They will be at the core with Wake and BC and make a conference in their own nerdy image. Toss in the 3 service academies, Rice, Tulane and a few others and its a Nerds conference with name power.
If Yormark doesn’t see this as a golden opportunity he is a damned fool.
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It’ll be a “Magnolia League,” more or less.
But will have little football power or prestige.
Won’t be regarded as a “power” football conference.
I think their best chance at playing in CFP is the Big 12.
They will never get there in the SEC….flawed thinking.
They will be Florida’s version UT and A&M.
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The B1G and SEC are probably going to account for 8 of the 12 playoff spots, if not more, in most years.
They will be WELL REPRESENTED
Big 12 will be ready and will exist in the Big 3!!!
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Yeah I am not a litigator, but this is a common tactic when parties try to get out of contracts. They often use this option to have a judge declare a contract unenforceable.
This would be used by FSU (and probably everyone else in the ACC) to get out of the ESPN media deal.
I would be very interested to see what FSU’s argument to the court would be. Maybe that the deal is so old that it puts them at such a disadvantage that it effectively makes their sports programs non-competitive, and thus harming taxpayers. Or, and I would really love to see this argument made, that ESPN, through its contractual obligations with the SEC, effectively colluded against FSU, in order to let in Bama, a current SEC school, and UT, a future SEC school, at the expense of FSU, costing it millions of dollars. The benefit of this suit is that it would put two issues to the test at once: how much power should TV networks have over college football, and, can a single entity such as ESPN (of Fox Sports), be allowed to control so much of the TV deals and the eligibility for the playoffs, that it effectively is anti-competitive? If the courts were to hold that ESPN and the SEC colluded, it would be an absolutely devastating blow to College Sports broadcasting.
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Not going into if I believe they can or can’t leave at all, but for conversation I was thinking about the media rights vs exit fees.
They would need to pay out exit fees, which are negotiable and somewhat doable for them.
Now the media is where I am curious. I think the SEC would be the only option. Why? What media is lost if they move to the SEC. ESPN owns the ACC rights of FSU. If they go to the SEC, ESPN still controls all rights to FSU and any who come along. This means there is no media content loss for ESPN if 4 schools move to the SEC.
I said 4 as that would then give ESPN the ability to lower ACC payouts and add some to the SEC to help keep their (ESPN) costs similar of the next 5 years.
The B1G is a different beast as it is a FOX property. FSU goes there and FOX simply does not show any FSU games. The school would disappear from most TV content. As such, I also think the B1G would not give FSU a full media share since they would not provide content…
Yormark ain’t no fool.
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Should the judge grant an order in favor of FSU, does this then set a precedent for any school wanting to leave a conference at any given time to just do so, regardless of contractual agreement?
Lol no way in hell FSU joins the Big 12…
We can’t afford to pay them the kind of money they’re expecting to make.
Plus it’s pretty obvious that Yormark is shaping the Big 12 to be a basketball-focused conference in the coming years