Examining a wild week in conference realignment as Florida State makes a fuss about the ACC (podcast)

Syracuse, N.Y. ― The conference realignment issue shook the college sports landscape this week.

The Big Ten and Big 12 continued expansion efforts. The Pac-12 tried to hold onto its membership. And Florida State administrators came out of a meeting rattling their sabres and threatening to leave the ACC.

Luke DeCock, sports columnist with the Raleigh News & Observer, joined the Inside Syracuse Basketball podcast to break down all the chaos with Syracuse.com’s Mike Waters.

DeCock scoffed at Florida State president Richard McCullough’s threats that the school would “seriously’’ consider leaving the ACC if the conference didn’t change its revenue distribution plan.

“I think they’re insane or really stupid. One or the other. Sometimes it’s hard to tell,’’ DeCock said.

DeCock noted the proposed revenue distribution plan to reward schools based on performance would not benefit Florida State.

“Florida State spends more money on athletics than any public school in the ACC,’’ DeCock said. “For that in the last decade it has 23 ACC titles; 11 or 12 of which were in men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track. None in football. The one they won in basketball was literally handed to them (at the Covid-canceled tournament in 2020) without playing a game.’

“So I would argue that Florida State does not need more money. It needs to get good at athletics, which it has not been in a decade.’’

DeCock said ACC ADs he had talked with were not taking Florida State’s threats seriously.

“If they want to leave the ACC, which honestly, I’ve talked to a couple ACC ADs whose joke is, ‘OK, they want to pay us $500 million, let them go,’ ” DeCock said, “because they’re going to be playing independent football on the CW at best.’’

DeCock said the television market does not favor conferences looking for new media deals or schools thinking they could add value to an already saturated market.