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Is The Big Ten Out On Florida State? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, July seventeenth. I'm your host Tom
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  Moore. The acbrin game in forty five days, the game against Michigan in
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  one hundred and thirty six days. We are less than a week away from
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  Big Ten Media days right now, so there's gonna be plenty of talk but
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  football all around the Big Ten Conference. And there was some talk about the
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  Big Ten Conference on Tuesday as well. That's when Brett McMurphy if the Action
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  Network dropped an article that made it seem like the rumors about Florida State and
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  the Big Ten like then Fred to throw some cold water on those maybe not
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  as likely as people thought, even assuming Florida State can get out of its
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  grant of rights with the ACC and all that kind of fun stuff. So
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  we're gonna be breaking that down a little bit today, why it might be
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  true, why maybe not. These are a little more complicated things are a
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  little more complicated than you might seem on the surface. We're doing that with
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  our buddy Tony gertaman Off Buckyhaddup dot Tom. But first let's just if you
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  miss the McMurphy article, I'm just going to read you the I know how
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  you guys love it when I read on air, We're gonna read you just
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  a couple of paragraphs here. Florida State will likely not have a spot in
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  the Big ten or SEC if it's successful in leaving the ACC and the ACC
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  stays intact, sources tell Action Network if SLASH. When the Seminoles break free
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  from the ACC, their top choices would be to join the Big Ten or
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  SEC because of the huge difference in television media rights revenue. Sources said.
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  However, there are multiple concerns about adding Florida State. Sources said those reasons
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  include the fact that it doesn't make financial sense for either league. Quote there's
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  no appetite for more expansion close quote, and Florida State has shown quote it's
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  not a good partner close quote always a good partner, though, Tony garter
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  ban if Buckehuddle dot Com, Tony, this is one of these things where
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  you read it and it's like, you know, Florida State will not have
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  a seat a spot in the Big ten or the SEC if it's successful in
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  leaving the ACC and the ACC stays intact. That feels like the second half
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  of that sentence is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. So, exec
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  you know, has this really moved the needle for you at all in terms
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  of Florida State is more or less likely to join the Big Ten or it
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  has not moved the needle at all for you. No, it hasn't really
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  necessarily moved the needle. It is interesting that you're getting quotes from people inside
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  the Big Ten saying, yeah, the Big Ten, we're not really looking
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  at expansion right now. We're not interested in expansion. But I think in
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  this era of college football, and that's really what we're talking about, there's
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  always an appetite for expansion. It just has to be the right kind and
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  from the right people. And Tony Petitti is a television executive, so he's
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  going to be looking for more inventory. So I think that they're always going
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  to be looking. But when you say that Florida State won't have a spot
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  in the Big Ten or the SEC, I can believe they won't have a
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  spot in the SEC. The SEC doesn't necessarily need that market. The SEC
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  can stay doing what they're doing and be very very successful with it. The
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  Big ten can as well. But as we've seen, the Big Ten likes
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  to expand, and so they're not necessarily happy just sitting by, but that
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  there won't be us for them as long as the ACC is still intact,
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  Like what is the ACC without Florida State and Clemson? Like what kind of
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  the entity is it? And is it like the the PAC two that's still
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  a thing, But what is it? Really? So I think it could
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  be argued that once those two teams leave, if they do, everything that
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  we know about the ACC will be gone because it's it consists of teams like
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  Louisville and Pitt like who no offense, but really who cares about those two
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  programs or programs like that? And it's just a whole bunch of those programs,
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  a bunch of teams from the Big East and some Conference USA old time
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  programs. And so I think that the ACC staying intact would be kind of
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  like a in name only. I don't I'm not moved greatly by it,
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  especially knowing how quickly things change, or not necessarily how they change. But
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  how much do we get lied to? Yeah? And lying is lying is
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  a strong word, tony. We don't like to throw that around. Let's
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  say that the people in charge of these leagues and the people in charge of
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  these schools are not necessarily primarily incentivized to be extraordinarily truthful with reporters when they
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  talk to reporters. Let's let's softped a little little bit like that. But
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  this is a little like when you go and you buy a car and you
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  walk into the showroom, and you know, if you go in and you
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  say, oh my gosh, this is the car I've always wanted. I've
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  dreamed of having this car since I was a little kid, and I just
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  want this car, and this is the only car I want. Your negotiating
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  position at that point with the salesman who's just heard you say that is not
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  necessarily as strong as like, oh, I don't know, we're just kind
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  of looking. Who knows, we may you know, we may be in
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  the market at some point. You have a little more leverage when you're not
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  necessarily too interested and you know, the big ten position that Florida State has
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  not necessarily been a great partner in the whole conference thing like yeah, that's
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  that is actually true. Florida State has been a huge, flaming pain in
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  the butt for the ACC and it's commissioner Jim Phillips. So it's true.
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  But also if the Big ten was trying to get a little bit of a
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  sweetheart deal on Florida State, if Florida State does, in fact, at
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  some point come onto the market, you know, you gotta remember they got
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  Oregon and they got Washington basically fifty cents on the dollar this time last year
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  for a period of what seven eight year or something like that. You know,
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  if you were trying to do that, you would be saying some of
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  the same things at the Big ten was. And if you were Florida State
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  trying to you know, sort of bat your eyes at the Big ten.
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  And you know, because if Big ten knows the SEC is not an interest,
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  not interested potentially, then if Florida State is going to you know,
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  sort of bat their eyes at the Big twelve like, oh, look,
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  they're interested. They would like to they would like to buy me a malted
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  shake and have me be their best girl. Like what you know. That
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  looks a lot like what Florida State is doing right now too. It just
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  feels like this is this is a lot of people who are not necessarily primarily
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  incentivized to be telling the truth right now. No, for sure, not
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  and through all of these spinning wheels, I keep thinking the best thing for
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  Florida State, the best thing for Clemson, the best thing for the ACC's
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  where Florida State and Clemson to leave, the ACC breaks up and then everybody
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  gets back together and they get a new TV deal. Because really, this
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  is the only reason they want out. I'm sure they would love to stay
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  in the ACC if they could make the same kind of money that people in
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  the AC, in the Big Ten and the and the SEC are making,
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  but they can't in the ACC, so they've got to try to figure it
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  out. I don't think I guess they could make more money into Big twelve,
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  perhaps now that they'd be part of it, and there could be a
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  new deal signed, but they would also make more money in a new deal
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  signed with the AC. We see an ESPN or whatever business partner, but
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  we know a ESPN is not all that team to get out of that.
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  I'm not sure I understand why Florida State doesn't make sense for the Big Ten
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  when they do like expansion in Florida and the Southeast would be a nice new
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  market to have, unless they view like we already have that market because our
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  Big Ten alums are everywhere, especially in Florida, and maybe they view that
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  as like, yeah, we already got the viewership there. But I mean,
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  I think that's it, and I think it's a nice market to have,
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  But is it? Is it a seventy five cents on a dollar type
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  of thing? And what is Florida state? What is Clemson if they're even
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  involved, willing to take when everybody knows they could take forty cents on a
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  dollar and make more in the Big ten than they would in the ACC So
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  this is all very heavy negotiations by people who have been doing this for a
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  very very long time. So, Yeah, the media gets used in those
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  sorts of things quite often. Yeah, tell the put this out there,
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  we're not interested and see what happens, because I need to get a text
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  back from those people to let me know how much more interested they are now
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  that I've told them we're not no longer interested. So this is all just
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  part of people pulling the strings, and I think Brett McMurphy is one of
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  them being pulled. But also, you know, why wouldn't you put it
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  out there? Like why wouldn't you tell the story, Why wouldn't you report
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  this story, because just the machinations itself is a fascinating thing. But if
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  people want to go on the record, although not quite on the record,
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  and tell you these things, you know, I think it's very interesting.
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  Yeah, it is very interesting. It's always very interesting, and it's always
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  you know, you can read something from very very well connected people and then
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  immediately have them look like just dopes who don't know anything about anything. I
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  go back to this time last year. It was I'll pull it up last
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  year on July twenty eighth, John Wilner, who is about as plugged in
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  as anyone on earth with the PAC twelve conference, Paul Finbaum, who is
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  somewhat plugged in in the college football world himself. The exact quote was quote,
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  I don't see Oregon in Washington having a good spot to go right now.
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  There is zero indication that Big ten presidents want to go beyond sixteen.
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  That was on July twenty eighth, twenty twenty three, Tony. You want
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  to guess what happened Exactly seven days after that. Did Oregon in Washington get
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  to join the Big Ten? They did, in fact get to join the
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  Big Ten. That is why we're gonna be talking to Oregon and Washington folks
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  next week in Indy. And you know, I want to be super clear,
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  this is not throwing shade on John Wilner or anyone else or Brett McMurphy
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  for this report Like this is just this is a very very difficult thing to
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  report on because there's a huge amount of interest, and there's a huge amount
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  of people who have lots of different angles here and lots of different angles they're
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  trying to work here, and you're not always going to get You can report
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  here's what I'm being told, but you know, I have not controlled f
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  the word sources in Brett McMurphy's article, but I'm going to guess it appears
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  about twenty times because there's not a lot of people who want to put their
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  names on this stuff right now, but they want to kind of tell you
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  what they're hearing and what their position is right now, whether it's really their
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  position or not. And the other piece of this that's kind of complicated is
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  if Florida State and clums and leave the ACC, then what because North Carolina,
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  you know, I don't know that there's going to be a huge bidding
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  war over wake Forest, but I'm going to guess that there will be one
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  to two major conferences out of the two major conferences that would be real interested
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  in adding, say North Carolina to their conference. That's something that you know,
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  going back to former North Carolina tar heel Jim Delaney, who was the
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  Big Ten commissioner for a number of decades, that they were always tossed around
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  as a potential addition to the Big Ten. You know, for Virginia,
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  Georgia Tech might bring the Atlanta market. And if you're bringing in Florida State,
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  you probably want to have a team that's located closer to Florida State than
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  Penn State or Maryland, so you might add you know, you much as
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  they added four teams from the West coast, you might add maybe a handful
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  of teams from the southeast. But as the conference broken up, then how
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  many of those teams can afford to get out of the ACC contract? What
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  will it cost to get out of the ACC contract? All of this stuff
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  is still kind of to be determined. So, you know, I look
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  at all of this, Tony, and I like, wow, this is
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  really interesting. What did we learn from all of this? Tom? To
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  answer your first question or the question you didn't ask, but you wondered about
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  ten times. Control F sources ten times in that story from Brett McMurphy.
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  I do think it's interesting that there's no interest. There's no market for Florida
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  State or Clemson in either of these leagues, but there are for North Carolina
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  and Virginia, And and is is the Charlotte market that much better than I
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  guess? Maybe maybe is Maybe it's just considered northern Florida in the Florida State
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  market, and in that case, maybe there's an argument there. But I
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  think North Carolina, Virginia, they have the the the more academic aspect of
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  this as well. I don't think that moves the needle for the SEC at
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  all, if we're being honest. So it just feels it feels like there's
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  messaging being put out here. I think the what what's more likely that the
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  Big Ten ends up with none of Virginia, North Carolina, Florida State,
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  Clemson, or they end up with all of them. I would say,
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  you know, I'm not going to put a time horizon on this, because
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  this could be you could tell me this is three weeks from now, where
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  you could tell me this is in twenty thirty six when the when the conference's
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  TV deal ends up, and I kind of go, yeah, sure,
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  okay, but I would definitely say more likely that you know, over under
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  of zero point five. I'm going to bet the over on that because there
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  is you know, this is the the current status of some of these leagues
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  is not going to last forever. And you know, Florida State and Clemson
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  have been very very clear about the fact that they want out and other teams
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  are going to have you know, other teams are going to find appealing options
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  in the Big Ten or the SEC. And you know, the argument against
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  adding Florida State to the SEC is they already have a team in Florida.
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  Why would they need another team in Florida. I think you're going to run
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  into that same argument with Clemson in South Carolina and Georgia Tech, Georgia and
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  some other folks there as well. And really, you know, North Carolina,
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  Virginia, Georgia Tech, those are all AAU members. Those are role
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  schools that fit the Big Ten academic profile. Clemson and Florida State. Yeah,
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  I mean, how much does that matter? Like the answer to that
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  changes quite a bit over over the years, as as you know the the
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  focus areas of focus and you know, academics and cable TV households like some
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  of the some of the interests in some of those those details have sort of
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  waxed and waned over the years. So we will get a chance to talk
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  to Tony Patiti, the Big Ten commissioner about conference expansion next week. How
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  honest will he be? Well, we'll all find out together in Indianapolis and
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  at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That's where Tony, Kevin and I cover the
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  team over the Ohio State football team, Ohistate basketball, all that fun stuff
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  Oldpuckey Huddle dot com, Mark covers recruiting right our whole team of exces and
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  those gurus making you a smarter football fan. That is all at pucke huddle
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  dot com and of course you can find us at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye
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  Huddle. We are going to have a ton of content coming to you from
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  Indianapolis next week and not wait. Really looking forward to that trip, looking
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  forward to talking to a lot of Big Ten coaches, players, executives,
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  TV executives, officiating executives, all the good stuff we get to do every
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  year that we sets us up for a very fun, an exciting football season.
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  Will be doing that all next week at Big Ten med Days in Indianapolis.
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  We hope to see it at Buckeyehuddle to enjoy all of it. That'll
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  do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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  great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.