Florida Football: Gators don’t need to lend hand to help FSU escape ACC

As members of the SEC, Florida football has access to everything it could want or need from a national level. It has a network that people actually watch, it gets prime scheduling and priority during football season, and it has a revenue model that ensures the coffers in Gainesville will never be empty.

Florida State has none of that and desperately wants to change it. The Gators would be wise to let the Seminoles cast away and not lend a hand to help them to the SEC.

Florida Football: If it’s lonely at the top, I’d rather be alone

Reports and grumblings of Florida’s Neighbors to the West wanting to leave the ACC are nothing new. Back in February, there was momentum for FSU to leave for higher grounds. Among their core complaints is the revenue distribution system that right now distributes revenue equally among all members of the ACC, while Florida State contends they alone account for 10% of the revenue.

Clemson has similar complaints.

Now a report from Brett McMurphy of Action Network is that FSU, Clemson, Miami, UNC, NC State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech have all been in communications about breaking free from the conference’s Grant of Rights.

The ship is sinking, and FSU needs a lifeboat.

History doesn’t remember lost souls at sea, it only remembers the winners.

And this is where it would behoove Florida to engage in some ruthless aggression of its own.

With Texas and Oklahoma entering into the SEC, the conference is already ballooning to 16 teams. With super conferences feeling like an inevitability, there will be pressure on the SEC to keep pace in the arms race with the Big 10 and gobble up even more universities.

Clemson and FSU are worthwhile brands, but at some point, the SEC is going to add so many teams to the conference that having a seat at the table in the SEC won’t mean as much.

Florida already has this seat at the table, it already has its lifeboat. Bringing FSU to the SEC would only strengthen FSU.

It would do nothing to help Florida.

Learn from others

If you want an example of ruthless aggression to get ahead, look no further than our noisy neighbors from Orlando. UCF is off to the Big 12 along with BYU, Houston, and Cincinnati.

Do you know who they didn’t help out so that they could have a local dance partner?

USF.

And as it stands now, UCF has a better TV deal than FSU.

We don’t know if Florida football has the power to block FSU, or if the SEC would actually want FSU, but if they do, it would be wise to invoke that power.