When the first reports linking Florida State and the Big 12 began circulating online, they were mostly dismissed as wishful thinking coming out of Austin.
However, in an interview Saturday with Warchant.com, Florida State Board of Trustees chairman Andy Haggard poured lighting fluid on an open fire with a series of incendiary comments reacting to the ACC's new TV deal with ESPN.
What seemed to infuriate Haggard the most was the fact that the conference relinquished third-tier football rights, the same ones UT used to create the Longhorn Network with ESPN, but kept their third-tier basketball rights. That, in turn, will create substantial paydays for basketball schools like UNC and Duke at the expense of football powers like Florida State:
"It continues the perception that the ACC favors the North Carolina schools," noted Haggard. "How do you not look into that option [of talking to the Big 12. On behalf of the Board of Trustees I can say that unanimously we would be in favor of seeing what the Big 12 might have to offer. We have to do what is in Florida State's best interest."
With only 10 members, the Big 12 would need two more schools to create two divisions and have a conference championship game in football. And if Florida State, a tradition-rich school with a huge fanbase in one of the biggest states in the country, is really looking, they would almost certainly be accepted.
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