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So this pretty much confirms that FSU is thinking about it, right?
A lot of people have made a big deal out of the fact that FSU President Eric Barron has issued a memo/email about the possibility of leaving the ACC for the Big 12ish. But it's possible to overstate the importance of Barron's obvious preference for staying in the ACC and miss the significance of the memo.
First of all, Barron works for the Florida State board of trustees -- not the other way around. If the trustees want to move to the Big 12ish and no one higher up in Florida's hierarchy stops them, the Seminoles are going to be taken biennial trips to Lawrence, Kansas. Barron can advocate for the ACC all he wants -- but if he doesn't convince the trustees, there's nothing Barron can do to stop the move.
That said, I find it fascinating that Barron felt compelled to issue the memo. If it was just a rogue trustee popping off in the media, and there wasn't at least some momentum toward Florida State moving to the Big 12, why would he go to the trouble of writing out a long response to a non-issue? Sure, you can't totally ignore something like this, but there are far easier ways to nip that talk in the bud.
And that brings us back to what is most telling about Barron's memo: It doesn't say no. It lists a lot of reasons that trustees might want to say no, but if anything what Barron wrote leaves us with direct confirmation that Florida State is reconsidering its place in college football's current alignment.
I assure you that every aspect of conference affiliation will be looked at by this institution, but it must be a reasoned decision.
That sentence says it all. Florida State is going to re-evaluate its conference affiliation. The only question is whether Barron's opinion carries the day or the board decides to move in a different direction.
They'll fit right in
Kansas won't play Missouri any more now that the Tigers have moved to the SEC. So Missouri lawmakers and citizens have come up with a perfectly reasonable response: Getting ready to block the creation of a KU license plate in Missouri. This shocks the sponsor of the bill.
One thing is for certain: The Border War appears plenty healthy. Denison, who went to college in Texas, had a full voicemail last Friday -- and at least one particularly ugly message.
"I can’t believe," Denison said, "there is so much talking over a bill that can’t even be voted on until next year."
Obviously, we don't condone the send of nasty voice mails to lawmakers just because they have dumb ideas -- there would be some states where the entire population spent 24 hours a day on the phone -- but the fight shows that Missouri is already showing signs of being an SEC state.
One down, five to go
Arkansas has released Kane Whitehurst from his scholarship after his arrest last month. No word yet on whether Maudrecus Humphrey, Marquel Wade or the other Razorbacks who have ended up in the pokey might soon have more free time on their hands.
Back to square one
The supporters of the stipend are trying to put as good a spin on this as they can, but there's reason to think that the idea is either in real trouble or in danger of getting watered down so much that it won't have the effect that it's supposed to have.
You wonder how those less wealthy programs will feel when the NCAA divides and the upper-tier teams start paying players "market value." Because that's what we're looking at if the stipend proposal keeps getting bottled up.