Florida St. to the Big 12 Links

Since this is apparently the topic of the weekend, I thought I'd add a bit more to yesterday's FanShot. First and foremost, Warchant's Gene Williams has been very much on top of everything and has an excellent summary of the Florida St. Board of Trustee's Andy Haggard and his comments from yesterday:

While the new deal will result in an increase of nearly $4 million per school from the old contract, some of the terms have resulted in harsh criticism from Florida State fans and alumni. It has also drawn the ire of FSU's Board of Trustees' Chair.

"It's mind-boggling and shocking," said Haggard. "How can the ACC give up third tier rights for football but keep them for basketball?"

Haggard is referring to the fact that the ACC surrendered all third tier television rights for football to ESPN/ABC but kept them for men's basketball. That arrangement will likely result in substantial revenue for schools with a strong basketball following like North Carolina and Duke.On the other hand, it will do very little for schools with a more traditional football following like FSU, Clemson, Virginia Tech and Miami.

"It continues the perception that the ACC favors the North Carolina schools," noted Haggard.

Ironically, the biggest issue with the Big 12 is that under Dan Beebe the perception was that it favored the Longhorns and FSU seems to have a problem with favoritism. I think things have evened out a bit more since Chuck Neinas took hold, especially with all of the teams granting their 1st and 2nd tier rights to the conference to prohibit conference jumping.

Yahoo! Sports Dan Wetzel has an excellent breakdown of the new ACC television contract and notes that the contract is very much backloaded:

The reality was bad, however. The initial bump in television revenue is actually just over $1 million a year, sources said, and a total in the $12 million range next season. The deal is back loaded so the bigger money comes in escalator provisions that, considering how broadcast rights keep growing, probably will be below market by the time any sizeable gains are realized.

That additional $4 million per school, per year? That won't come until 2021, nine years in, sources said.

Privately, almost everyone was troubled by the deal.

And adds this:

Would the Big 12 be interested in Florida State?

"I can't imagine how we wouldn't be interested in Florida State," one Big 12 source said.

Last, Orlando Sentinel's Mike Bianchii talked with Florida St. head coach Jimbo Fisher, who said that Florida St. should do what is best for Florida St.:

"There have been no official talks, but I think you always have to look out there to see what's best for Florida State," Fisher said. "If that [jumping to the Big 12] is what's best for Florida State, then that's what we need to do."

My only hope is that any conference realignment issues are resolved prior to the start of the football season, and I very much disliked how these issues took away from the football season last year. I am in favor of expanding the conference and with Louisville announcing that they are looking around due to the issues with the crumbling Big East Conference.