As the rumors of Florida State's interest in jumping ship from the ACC to the Big 12 persist, the president of the school and the athletic director continue to try to shoot down the rumors. Recently, FSU president Eric Barron released a memo arguing, as ESPN's Joe Schad puts it, "mostly" against leaving the ACC.
In memo, FSU Prez Barron writes, "We can't afford to have conference affiliation governed by emotion."
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) May 14, 2012
The memo as a whole highlights four key things that are usually argued as reason for FSU to leave the ACC for the Big 12.
Barron notes the four themes that have surrounded the rumor of a possible jump to the Big 12:
- The ACC is more basketball centric.
- The ACC is too North Carolina centric.
- The Big 12 has football schools that match up with Florida State.
- The Big 12 contract pays more than the ACC contract, and FSU needs that money to remain competitive.
Barron then goes on to argue against those points, including adding a few more in favor of staying in the ACC. Some of those extra points include the fact that Florida State would lose their rivalry game with the University of Miami and the FSU faculty is adamantly opposed to the move because they would be joining a weaker "academic" conference.
Barron also highlights how it would actually cost too much money for FSU to jump to the Big 12 conference:
It will cost between $20M and $25M to leave the ACC we have no idea where that money would come from. It would have to come from the Boosters which currently are unable to support our current University athletic budget, hence the 2% cut in that budget.
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