No bad blood at conference’s spring meetings, but divorce between ACC, Florida State and Clemson still likely

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — It’s business as usual in the ACC for Florida State and Clemson at the conference’s annual spring meetings, even if the schools continue to quarrel with the conference inside the courtroom.

The ACC is a battleground, with Florida State and Clemson locked in multiple legal disputes as they challenge the league’s grant of rights and contemplate a departure from the conference. The catalyst for this upheaval is the growing disparity in revenue between the ACC and the more financially robust Power 2 conferences (Big Ten and SEC), which could amount to as much as $40 million per year for their members.

For now, everyone is acting professionally, even if it seems inevitable Clemson and Florida State’s marriage with the ACC is nearing an end. Clemson and Florida State administrators were not excluded from meetings this week at the conference’s spring get-together and the lawsuits — FSU v. ACC, ACC v. FSU, Clemson v. ACC and ACC v. Clemson — were not a topic. Athletic directors were cordial and professional. Florida State AD Michael Alford joked with colleagues. Wake Forest AD John Currie even elicited a laugh from Alford as he hunched behind his colleague during an impromptu gathering with the media. 

And no one spoke in hushed tones in the hallways of the Ritz-Carlton as meetings stretched into the evening Tuesday.

Still, the silent question lingered: is this marriage salvageable?

“We’ll just wait for that to play out,” Alford said Tuesday. “We have great partners in this conference, great relationships, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to do what’s best for Florida State and look at the changing environment of collegiate athletics and make sure we’re there to be successful.”

Alford maintains there is “no ill will…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/no-bad-blood-at-conferences-spring-meetings-but-divorce-between-acc-florida-state-and-clemson-still-likely/

Author : Brandon Marcello

Publish date : 2024-05-15 03:57:09

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.