FSU calls special meeting amid cloudy ACC future
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State has called a special board of trustees meeting for Friday morning.
While no official reason was given for the meeting, sources indicated to ESPN that the board is expected to discuss its long-term athletics future.
The meeting, announced Thursday, comes nearly three weeks after the Seminoles became the first undefeated Power 5 champion left out of the College Football Playoff, a decision that angered university officials, its board and athletic department after a year spent voicing their unhappiness with the ACC for a host of reasons — including a widening revenue gap with other conferences, revenue distribution and its place in the collegiate landscape.
Any ACC school that wants to leave the conference would have to challenge the grant of rights. Florida State and all other ACC members signed a grant of rights with the league that runs through 2036, the length of its television contract with ESPN, that gives the league control over its media rights — including television revenue and home game broadcasts in all sports. In addition, any school that wants to leave the ACC would have to pay an exit fee of three times the league’s operating budget, or roughly $120 million.
Nobody has ever legally challenged the grant of rights. ACC officials have previously described the grant of rights as “ironclad,” and firmly believe in the strength of the document. But Florida State has had its legal counsel review it, where it is housed at the league office in Charlotte, North Carolina.
If Florida State decides to challenge the grant of rights, it would not leave the league immediately, as the process would take some time. There also is significant risk to challenging the grant of rights. In 2022, one ACC athletic director told ESPN: “There would be a hell of a court fight, I will tell you that.”
Nearly every ACC school has studied the grant of rights since conference realignment began again in the summer of 2021, when the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma. The following summer, the Big Ten added USC and UCLA . Those moves sent shock waves through college football but also a dose of reality to the ACC, and in particular, league schools worried about falling further behind in revenue and relevance.
Florida State started sounding alarm bells about its unhappiness with the ACC in February, when athletic director Michael Alford told his board of trustees the school was about to fall behind SEC and Big Ten schools by $30 million annually when their respective new television contracts begin.
In May, it was revealed that seven ACC schools — Florida State, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech and NC State — had conversations among themselves about the grant of rights and securing a path forward.
Though the ACC eventually agreed to change its revenue distribution model — in large part because Florida State pushed for it — an August board of trustees meeting in Tallahassee put into clearer focus just how unhappy Florida State had become as another wave of realignment shifted conference affiliations again.
University president Richard McCullough made it clear the school would “very seriously” consider leaving the league. Board chairman Peter Collins made it clear the grant of rights “will not be the document that keeps us from taking action,” as one board member after another pushed the school to come up with an action plan for its long-term future. In a separate interview with ESPN in August, McCullough said he was “not that optimistic that we’ll be able to stay. At some point, we’re going to have to do something.”
A few weeks after that board meeting, the ACC added Stanford, California and SMU in response to the Big Ten adding Oregon and Washington, and the Big 12 expanding as well. Florida State, Clemson and North Carolina all voted no to expansion. The move was seen as a way to secure the league’s long-term future should they lose schools to other conferences.
Watching Florida State become the first undefeated Power 5 team to get left out of the College Football Playoff on Dec. 3 only served to speed momentum toward plotting its course forward. The anger and emotion led to questions about the ACC as a whole, and whether being an ACC school is what ultimately kept them out. The fact that an ACC athletic director — NC State’s Boo Corrigan — served as committee chairman only exacerbated the situation.
Multiple school officials expressed dissatisfaction with the league and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips for not being out front publicly to push the Florida State case after quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury.
Those concerns were only underscored when CFP executive director Bill Hancock wrote in a letter to U.S. Sen. Rick Scott about the Florida State snub that the Seminoles did not have a strong enough strength of schedule and described the ACC as a “so-called Power 5 conference.” While Hancock later clarified that statement, Florida State officials took that phrase as a slap to the ACC.
By then, though, conversations had already heated up about FSU’s long-term future. Now it is up to the board to decide its next step forward.
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Adam Rittenberg
BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.
Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”
“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”
Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.
“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”
Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.
Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.
“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”
Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.
“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.
“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”
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Adam Rittenberg
LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.
Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.
Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.
“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”
Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”
LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.
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