Unconquered

I'm not advocating for the ACC or against it but I agree with you the ACC has made some good moves in football in the last few months and this "association idea" is an example of the out of the box thinking their critics have said they are not capable of. A bowl alliance would be good too.

Addressing some of the posts:
1.) I believe the network would be interested in an alliance under the right circumstances and would pay the conference more for the rights because intersectional broadcasts would increases the value to advertisers. How much I don't know but I believe it could be substantial just like the 5-game deal with Notre Dame will increase the payout to FSU beginning in 2014.

2.) Let's not get lost in details on an idea that is in preliminary discussion. The real point of this thread isn't how much or when but that the ACC continues to show us it is trying to improve.

3.) Why an alliance could help scheduling... FSU is working hard to improve its out of conference schedule with both neutral site games and with home and away contests with major programs and will announce a home and away with a good opponent soon as well as dates when ND will come to FSU and vice versa which could be as early as 2014.

Someone mentioned that Duke and Virginia have managed to sign major opponents to play out of conference games so why is it so hard for FSU to do the same? I can see why SEC, Big12, Pac12 and BIG teams were eager to schedule Duke and UVa but their interest in adding another difficult opponent like FSU to their schedule is a whole nuther matter. The alliance could help.

4.) I disagree with the poster who said the SOS problem is the ACC portion of the schedule alone. If the ACC doesn't get any better, we can still take responsibility for improving our SOS by scheduling stronger out of conference opponents while we are members of the ACC.

5.) everyone is talking about how the television revenue differential between the conferences is $10 million and FSU can't survive if that's the case. I agree. But FSU can take responsibility for its future and insure itself that it can compete no matter what happens with conference expansion by addressing home scheduling issues and give its fans a reason to buy season tickets and make more booster contributions. Do you know we could generate another $8 million dollars or more in ticket and booster contributions if we sold out our games like we came close to in the 1990s.
Here's how we control our own destiny:
If you look at the other conferences, they only have about three really attractive home games, some years four. FSU needs to have three or four attractive teams on our home schedule to get the fans who aren't buying tickets to buy. We need to add one more attractive OOC opponent at home in the odd years to give our home schedule at least three really good anchor games in even and odd years (Florida, Clemson NC State in even and Miami, Louisville, and that strong out of conferene addition in odd years). We believe we'll have a fourth attractive team in that schedule each year too with ND in 2014 or 2015 and possibly an ACC crossover with Va Tech or Ga Tech some years. If the other ACC members step up to give us a fifth attractive home game, that's a bonus.

6.) Get back to our roots... If you think back to when FSU joined the ACC, the one advantage was it gave us the ability to play strong national teams like Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, LSU, Nebraska, Miami as our out of conference opponents. That was fun for our fans, was attractive to recruits, and differentiated us from our SEC rivals. For reasons not totally under our control, we've strayed from that over the years. I'm really happy to report that we're heading back in that direction with a commitment to adding a stronger OOC opponent, playing neutral site games, and ND every few years.

7.) FSU's eyes are wide open to the listening the SEC, B1G or Big 12 but as long as we are a member of the ACC, it serves our interests to encourage anything that improves the ACC.

I want out! If we're in a better conference we don't have to worry about all these out of the box ideas. Seems like we are having to work harder because the ACC is so poorly run. Sure they are trying to get better but they have so mismanaged the tv contracts with Raycom being in the mix that I question whether they can really get it right. If they can get ND locked in full time then I'll change my tune.

I'm supportive of everything in this post.

Jerry, speaking of an opponent to be announced, there had been some rumblings that we'd be playing a home-and-home with Southern Miss, with Southern Miss' "home" game to be played in New Orleans. Is there anything to that rumor? New Orleans would be a fun trip.

If the Big 12 adds FSU they don't need this deal either. Fairly simple concept.

If we strike a scheduling deal with the Big 12, what's the appeal of us moving to the Big 12? There wouldn't be much of a difference in the quality of football opponents, as we'd be playing Florida, Clemson, Miami, Louisville, and a premier Big 12 team every season, plus Notre Dame once every three seasons. Switching wouldn't make sense geographically, academically, or for olympic sports, either.

I agree that FSU can improve its SOS by scheduling strong OOC opponents. I'm not arguing against that. However, I feel like FSU can do this outside of a scheduling alliance. I understand that it may be difficult to get certain teams to schedule FSU because they don't need a good OOC schedule (due to their conference SOS). However, there are numerous teams who don't have traditional rivals OOC, and they usually schedule at least one strong OOC opponent.

Alabama - has or will play Michigan, VT, FSU, Mich St, GT OOC
Auburn - Clemson, Kansas St. OOC
Arkansas - has Michigan on future schedules
LSU - has played Oregon, and has OU on future schedules
Tenn - Oregon, OU, Nebraska, USC
Ohio State - has OU, Oregon, and UT on future schedules
Michigan - ND, Arkansas
Mich St - Alabama, Oregon, Miami on future schedules
Nebraska - Miami, Tenn, OU on future schedules
Tex A&M - USC, Oregon
USC - A&M, Tenn
OU
UT

I list these to show that these type teams are willing to schedule tough teams OOC. Maybe there is information I don't have, but I think FSU could/should be able to do this outside of a scheduling alliance.

And, as was my point in my original post, I think it would be better for FSU to do this *outside* of a scheduling alliance with the Big12. The scheduling alliance would introduce the rest of the ACC to games that, in my opinion, they are very likely to lose, as is evidenced by the ACC's record in OOC match-ups.

Let FSU increase our SOS with some powerful OOC match-ups, and let the rest of the ACC schedule highly winnable games. The ACC schedules more BCS teams OOC than any other conference, and FSU's SOS suffers due to the ACC's poor record in those games.

Won't FSU play ND twice every 10 years and FSU will play Auburn/Alabama twice every 12 years?

jerry,i hope fsu is" wide open" to listening to the sec,big 10 and big 12.our president's public stance is to the contrary.to me this is such an important issue that the board of trustees should be involved in a detailed financial anaysis.

The President and Florida State, me included, should take a publicly pro ACC stance even if his eyes are wide open. And yes a full financial analysis is important, as well as a comprehensive analysis that extends beyond the obvious financial analysis.
The Board of Trustees is engaged as well.
Whatever conference we are in, we must make the best of it. I am an action guy and its against my nature to take a fatalistic approach, the damsel in distress waiting until the knight in shining armor comes to rescue her.
I want to control my destiny.

This is the best post I have heard on expansion

Support the ACC but look at others and do your homework. I am happy to hear it is ongoing.

I think you meant Florida will have one home and home or play only 2 games vs Bama/Auburn every 12 years?