Now to the major story of the day, I want to set this up before we bring in David Teal. And David is down at Amelia Island, Florida.
He is with the Richmond Times Dispatch. It appears that the anger or that the unrest, we use unrest, from Florida State Director of Athletics that he is, well, Florida State as a community has wanderlust and they have pocketbook envy of teams in the Southeastern Conference. And of course, their chief rival, the University of Florida, lives in the Southeastern Conference. And in a couple of years, they will probably double the media take home or the annual revenue distribution from the SEC as to what Florida State gets from the ACC. So as it's been floated, Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech are exploring their options, which include a downright secession from the Atlantic Coast Conference. They have termed them the Magnificent Seven.
I would use a different term, but that is what they have been termed. I love the movie, the original, not the remake. I wouldn't see the remake with your eyes. And we get hyper-focused on, in college sports, we get hyper-focused on things like pay for play or play for pay, play for pay. I got that wrong. We get distracted by the transfer portal and the scourge of name, image, and likeness as though those are the things that are destroying the fabric of college sports. But I've been saying this for such a long time. The single biggest threat to college sports is the abject greed of the major conferences and the schools within them. By millions of miles, this is more damaging to college sports than name, image, and likeness. And I can't tell you what is the future of sports in college. I have no clue what it's going to look like because it could look as drastic as we've got two conferences and you're either in it or you're not.
Because that could be the reality. It could be the Southeastern Conference with, I don't know how many teams. It won't be as many as you think, by the way. It won't be 30 teams in the SEC and 30 teams in the Big Ten because all of the existing schools would have to take a pay cut and a big one. It ain't doing that.
Nobody gets in this business to make less money. But we are looking at a school like Florida State or NC State or UNC or any of these schools that think that there is a better future for them elsewhere. We are legitimately looking at the possibility that it all breaks down. And it all breaks down. I don't know what the future is.
I know it's ugly. I know these conferences are already all too big, including the Atlantic Coast Conference. But it's all about greed. 100% about greed. That will destroy college sports as we know it. Not NIL, not Transfer Portal, not any of this other piddly crap.
It's greed. Now, with that setup, I bring in my friend David Teal, who is as genial a man as you will ever meet. He is with the Richmond Times.
He is down in Amelia Island, Florida. And I saw, I saw, obviously, an unsubstantiated and false rumor that John Curry, the athletic director at Wake Forest, was yelling at Boo Corrigan, the athletic director at NC State, in the Amelia Island cocktail. And I knew Corrigan, the athletic director at NC State, in the Amelia Island cocktail lounge as though that would ever happen. But man, is the mood as tense down there as I think it is?
It was yesterday, without question, Adam. And I sat outside this morning for about a half hour with Whit Babcock, the Virginia Tech athletic director. And we talked about it. And he acknowledged that there were some things said in the ADs room yesterday that he believed needed to be said.
And I think some people put their cards out. And he said that Jim Phillips did a good job navigating it all. And indeed, that some of these discussions have hastened the progress of the athletic directors as they move toward a model of changing the revenue sharing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
So what are they? David Teal is joining us at by David Teal on Twitter. They have suggested, or Florida State has suggested, a more uneven distribution of revenue, even if FSU got a higher percentage than, let's just say, Boston College. We're not even coming close to bridging the gap between where FSU is and where their most heated rival, Florida, is. Or, you know, if we projected five years down the road, we're still going to be 40 million dollars apart.
Well, I know they'll still be 40 million dollars apart, Adam. But what I believe the athletic directors are considering and will probably move forward to the presidents is a model where the new revenue that's going to come in from the expanded college football playoff. Right. And some other things that that pot of money will be used to reward those programs in football and men's basketball that perform, not those that draw the largest television audiences or any other nonsense being floated by Michael Alford, the Florida State AD, who's talking about brands and such. And may I remind you and your listeners, Adam, in the last eight football seasons, which is a pretty good sample size, Florida State is thirty two and thirty two.
Right. In conference football games, which ranks seven seven in the league during that time. Behind Wake, right? No, behind Clemson, Miami, Pitt State, Carolina and Virginia Tech. OK. Whoa. Behind Virginia Tech, even.
Yes. No offense to Virginia Tech. It's been a it's been a rough go. That's what I think my favorite thing about the Florida State Hubris here is that they have completely ignored their role in why the ACC is in the position it is in. But because when the ACC, when John Swafford, then the commissioner, was negotiating the new TV deal, Florida State was in its like the middle of this, you know, six or seven year vanishing act from the national scene post Jimbo Fisher. And if Florida State were the best version of Florida State, we would have at least had two nationally relevant programs to sell to the networks because Miami hadn't yet figured it out. Not that they have have now, but we would have had Clemson and Florida State. It would have been a much easier sell to the networks.
There might have been more competition, but no, Florida State was on walkabout and they're part of the problem. The new Chevy Silverado HD puts you in command. Own strength with its enhanced available Duramax 6.6 liter turbo diesel V8. Own the lake with its available advanced towing technology and own technology with an available 13.4 inch diagonal touchscreen. The new Chevy Silverado HD own work, own play, own life. Learn more at chevy.com. Find new roads, Chevrolet.
Yes, they are absolutely part of the problem, but the concept of stealth awareness is strikingly absent in Tallahassee and has always been. All right, let me ask you this question, because this is the big, this is the biggest picture thing. And you and I have talked about this before.
It always comes back, comes down to one little piece of paper. And that is the grant of rights. I have read and heard so many things about, well, we believe that if these magnificent seven, which again, I would not use the term magnificent, but if these magnificent seven decided, you know what, we are going to go, we are going to challenge this. We're going to go do our own thing.
What, I mean, can that work? The lawyer, I have to think that the lawyers would have come up with this before if that grant of rights could be legitimately challenged. But what are you hearing there about either that seven or, you know, another school or two deciding, we're going to give it a shot. Those seven that Brent McMurphy tweeted yesterday, they are accurate.
And those ADs have met, they have met with attorneys, they have met as a group, they have met in subsets of two or three. But there is nothing there. It appears that that grant of rights is indeed airtight. And I think I agree with your thought that if there was an out, it would have been explored by now. And as again, as what Babcock told me this morning, the focus now is on, you know, changing the revenue model, and at least appeasing some of the folks, you know, who believe they deserve more. The beauty of this is that this is not going to be retroactive. You may think you may think you deserve more, but you're not getting a nickel more unless you earn it. Right. I think we can all we can all get with that. I have no problem with that kind of a distribution of revenue or reward, if you will. The other thing is that, you know, this is a mental exercise that I would like to play is how many of those magnificent seven, if they did decide, you know, we're out and come get our money if you want, if you if you if you dare.
How many of them would find soft landings? Correct. That's a that's a terrific question. How many of you know, if indeed, the Big Ten and the FCC are going to be pushing 70 and 80 70 or $80 million annual distributions to their member schools?
How many, if any, ACC institutions would be worth that much on an annual basis to keep everyone's piece of the pie whole? Yeah. And there's no need there's no reason to add it. There's really no reason to add if it just helps you maintain status quo.
The only reason to add is to go up. And I don't think there is a school in that mix that maybe I don't know, maybe North Carolina and Virginia are the would be the most. Right? Yeah. I don't know. Maybe the Big Ten going to Florida would would matter. I don't know. I don't think so.
Yeah. I think Carolina and Virginia because of their geography, demographics and broad based excellence, you know, you might be able to make a case. But, you know, let's remember that the Big Ten hasn't yet added USC and UCLA. The SEC hasn't yet added Oklahoma and Texas.
They've got a lot of navigating to do just to just to get those logistics off the ground. So, you know, I totally told someone today that the story here today is that the ACC much too much to Twitter's dismay did not dissolve on Tuesday because you would have thought that was going to happen today. I'm I'm literally reading the stories and thinking about then looking at Twitter and laughing at because there's mostly fan stuff now at this point, because I don't believe we're going to see any major changes. I will say this.
I have to let you go. Jack Swarbrick's comments, the athletic director at Notre Dame seemed to me to provide almost hope that there is a cooler head, maybe not not just in that room. But Jack Swarbrick is one of the major players across the sport. I think he gets that if if there is a a tipping point and we go too far, that we might see the whole thing, the whole establishment crumble, except for the schools that are in the SEC and the Big Ten.
Everybody else might end up being a group of five at that point. Yes, and Swarbrick is is a very wise man. And, you know, he and his president have written in The New York Times about the professionalization of college athletics and where they would prefer to see it go.
And this is right along those lines. David Thiel, you're the best at by David Thiel on Twitter, Richmond Times. Have fun at Amelia Island and don't sunscreen. Just use sunscreen. Got it, especially on my bald spot. I have no idea what that is. Thanks, David.
I'll talk to you soon. The new Chevy Silverado HD puts you in command. Own strength with its enhanced available Duramax 6.6 liter turbo diesel V8. Own the lake with its available advanced towing technology and own technology with an available 13.4 inch diagonal touch screen. The new Chevy Silverado HD. Own work, own play, own life. Learn more at chevy.com. Find new roads. Chevrolet.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-05-16 18:27:46 / 2023-05-16 18:33:12 / 5