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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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Florida freshman WR Wilson to debut vs. Texas

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Florida freshman WR Wilson to debut vs. Texas

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida has offensive help on the way with a freshman receiver who just might make a difference against No. 9 Texas on Saturday.

Dallas Wilson is practicing for the first time since injuring his left foot in training camp and is scheduled to make his collegiate debut against the Longhorns, coach Billy Napier said Monday.

Napier called Wilson’s availability “a big deal.”

“Three good days of work last week, and I thought he handled the load well,” Napier said. “He feels really good. So far, so good.”

Wilson, a 6-foot-3, 213-pound newcomer from Tampa, was the star of Florida’s spring game in April. He caught 10 passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns, and all indications in fall practice pointed to it not being a fluke.

But Wilson injured his foot late in camp, spent weeks in a protective boot and watched from afar as the Gators (1-3, 0-1 SEC) struggled to move the ball and find the end zone. Florida scored 16, 10 and 7 points, respectively, in consecutive losses to South Florida, LSU and Miami, raising speculation about Napier’s future in Gainesville.

Quarterback DJ Lagway has been the focus of the team’s offensive woes. The sophomore who went 6-1 as a starter last season missed most of the year dealing with injuries and looked rusty when the season began.

Although Lagway’s mechanics seemed improved in the team’s 26-7 setback at Miami on Sept. 20, his offensive line got manhandled and allowed way too much pressure for anyone to notice. Lagway completed 12 of 23 passes for 61 yards against the Hurricanes.

Napier used the off week to get Lagway more live-action reps in hopes of getting him “caught up.” But he also reiterated the need to “play better around him.”

“Each position group needs to step up,” Napier said. “More detail, eliminate errors, eliminate penalties, whatever the case may be. I just think more detail and better overall play around him. And, obviously, he needs to continue to get back closer to being himself.”

Adding Wilson to the mix should help.

The Gators haven’t shown much depth at receiver. Freshman Vernell Brown III has been Lagway’s go-to guy, catching 18 passes for 219 yards. But Eugene Wilson III, J. Michael Sturdivant and Aidan Mizell have been mostly underwhelming.

Dallas Wilson has been unable to help — until now. The Gators are confident he will change the narrative against the No. 1 scoring defense in the SEC.

“Just having him out is going to be amazing for us,” Lagway said. “His ability to go deep, his ability to make plays underneath and be able to make miraculous plays with the ball in his hands, it’s going to be great to have him back.”

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Finebaum mulls leaving ESPN for U.S. Senate run

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Finebaum mulls leaving ESPN for U.S. Senate run

SEC Network host Paul Finebaum said Monday that he would consider leaving ESPN to run for the U.S. Senate, representing Alabama.

The 70-year-old Finebaum said during a recent interview with Outkick that he’d run as a Republican to fill the seat vacated by former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, who has said he’ll run for Alabama governor in the 2026 elections. Tuberville’s current Senate term ends in 2027.

The qualifying deadline to run for Senate is Jan. 26, 2026. Finebaum said he would likely have to leave his hosting and analyst duties if he decided to run. He told Outkick he’d make a decision within the next 30-45 days.

Finebaum said he hadn’t seriously considered politics, but the assassination of Charlie Kirk was the impetus to give a run at politics further thought. He noted that he had received a “text” from “one or two people in Washington” gauging his interest in politics.

“[It was] something I never thought about before,” Finebaum told Outkick.

Finebaum is currently registered as a Republican in North Carolina, where he works for the SEC Network. He told Outkick he recently moved to Alabama, where he hosted a radio show for years, and would re-register there.

Finebaum hosted radio shows in Alabama for almost 30 years before joining ESPN and the SEC Network. He started his media career as a newspaper writer and columnist.

“Alabama has always been the place I’ve felt the most welcome, that I’ve cared the most about the people,” he said. “I’ve spoken to people from Alabama for 35 years, and I feel there is a connection that is hard to explain.”

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Petrino overhauls staff, fires defensive assistants

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Petrino overhauls staff, fires defensive assistants

Bobby Petrino has fired three defensive assistants just one day after being named interim head coach at Arkansas as part of an overhaul of the Razorbacks’ coaching staff.

Petrino dismissed defensive coordinator Travis Williams, defensive line coach Deke Adams and defensive assistant Marcus Woodson in the latest moves after being appointed interim coach for the rest of the season to replace Sam Pittman, who was fired Sunday following five-plus seasons as Arkansas’ head coach.

“I just felt like how we performed on Saturday gave me an indication that maybe Sam had lost the team a little bit because they generally had played really hard for him throughout his tenure,” Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek said of the move, which came on the heels of a 56-13 home loss to Notre Dame.

Petrino, 64, returned to Arkansas in 2023 as offensive coordinator after serving in a number of jobs. In four years as the Razorbacks’ head coach, he went 34-17, including consecutive seasons with double-digit victories in 2010 and 2011.

“Coach Petrino, as we met yesterday, he accepted this opportunity with the understanding that he also wanted an opportunity to formally be a candidate for our head coaching position, and he will have that opportunity, but we’ll also subsequently run a search for our next head coach at the same time,” Yurachek said.

Pittman’s dismissal, Petrino’s temporary promotion and the defensive assistant dismissals weren’t the only changes. Chris Wilson was named the team’s interim defensive coordinator.

Petrino had high praise for Wilson, who was in his first year with the Razorbacks as an assistant defensive line coach.

“My experience [with Wilson] goes way back to having to battle against him when he had all the great defensive linemen at Mississippi State,” Petrino said. “Very, very impressed with what he’s done throughout his career. Guy’s got a Super Bowl ring. He brings a lot of credibility into the room.”

Several defensive players posted cryptic messages on social media following the firing of Williams, who had served as the team’s defensive coordinator since 2023. Yurachek and Petrino encouraged players to welcome change amid a 2-3 start to the season.

“The No. 1 thing is, you have to get used to change. You know, your whole life there’s going to be change. So how we handle that, our attitude on how we handle that, will determine how quickly we improve,” Petrino said.

Petrino was involved in a single-vehicle motorcycle crash in April 2012 that left him with four broken ribs. At first, he said he was riding alone, but a police report revealed a woman was riding with him. The woman turned out to be a former Arkansas athlete who was in a romantic relationship with the married Petrino. The coach had given her a job in the football program and a $20,000 gift.

Petrino was fired by then-athletic director Jeff Long for misleading his bosses about what happened with the accident and his relationship with the football staffer.

Pittman, 63, went 32-34 with the Razorbacks.

ESPN’s Pete Thamel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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