Florida State and Clemson may not be playing in the ACC for long, but according to a report by On3, they aren’t leaving immediately. The news comes ahead of today’s ACC Media Days. It is no secret that Florida State and Clemson both want to get out of the conference, but recent reports and rumors seemed like there was a real chance that the two schools were headed to the Big 12.
According to On3 reports, Florida State and Clemson are not expected to announce any plans to leave the conference before the 2025-26 season. Here is the full statement:
“A source close to the ACC’s lawyers told On3 a settlement is not on the table and there is not a clear end in sight. The source also confirmed for On3 that the ACC is not expecting Florida State and Clemson to notify the league they intend to leave by the Aug. 15 deadline to depart after the upcoming year, as first reported by ESPN.”
Lawsuits Against the ACC
There are currently four lawsuits between the two schools and the conference, each side suing the other. It’s not hard to imagine that this has perhaps drawn lines in the sand that can’t be healed. The center of the issues is the media rights deal the conference has with ESPN through 2036.
Florida State and Clemson argue that the media rights deal was not done in good faith and that ESPN took advantage of the conference, locking them into a not-fair deal. They also point to adding schools like SMU and Cal as hurting the conference’s brand.
ESPN and the conference are fighting back, saying that it doesn’t matter what the current market is. Both teams signed the deal and are legally bound to that contract. They are also suing the schools for defamation.
Big 12 Appears Ready to Welcome the Teams
A few weeks ago, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark mentioned that the “Big 12 is still open for business.” This statement was very similar to what he said last year, right before the conference added the four Pac-12 schools.
Reports also were leaked by big-name college football reports, including Ross Dellinger and Josh Pate. While the deal never seemed anywhere close to being done, it did seem that there was definite momentum to some kind of deal being done.
Part of that momentum is the Big 12 exploring a private equity deal. Some believed that the Big 12 would use private equity money to help the buyout for ACC teams and potentially give money to those teams as unequal shares to join the conference.
Is the Deal Dead for Flordia State and Clemson?
Florida State and Clemson want to play in the Big 10 or SEC. Today that doesn’t look like a likely scenario, as the Big 10 has no interest in schools that aren’t AAU accredited. The SEC’s commissioner, Greg Sankey, was very clear last week during SEC Media Days that the conference was not interested in adding more schools.
This leaves two realistic options: join the Big 12 or remain in the ACC. Joining the Big 12 would feel like settling while remaining in the ACC would feel like a toxic relationship that could end up with more issues than solutions.
What this feels like is that Clemson and Florida State are putting off the decision for later. Perhaps they feel that a deal from the SEC or Big 10 may come in a year or two. While the gap between the Big 12 and ACC is going to be big enough for the teams to want to get out, the gap between the Big 10/SEC is even larger, and waiting a year to get that deal would be in their best interest.
In other words, this story is long from over.
