Report: Florida State, Clemson not expected to notify ACC of plans to leave by 2025-26 season

All signs point to Florida State and Clemson remaining in the ACC as the deadline to let the conference know of intentions to leave looms.

Monday morning, Thamel tweeted out that news, and On3’s Pete Nakos confirmed it. Thamel wrote in his tweet:

“Have been told by multiple sources that there’s no expectation for Florida State or Clemson to notify the ACC they intend to leave by the Aug. 15 deadline to depart after the upcoming year. That’s the deadline to declare intentions to exit for the 2025-26 year.”

So, it sounds like Florida State and Clemson will remain in the ACC for at least a little while longer. Meanwhile, the ACC itself can count the news as a small victory, for the timeline of potential departures of Clemson and FSU has now been pushed back if nothing else; plus, the process for actually leaving the league continues to prove more difficult than the schools anticipated.

It all goes back to that vaunted grant of rights, the protective shield for the ACC and its television contract. Essentially, the teams in the ACC are bound by the conference’s grant of rights, which owns each team’s media rights until it expires in 2036. It’s a rather brief document stored away in some office in North Carolina, but it’s the No. 1 reason why Clemson, Florida State and other schools can’t leave the ACC.

In the ACC’s case, the GOR binds the league, schools and broadcast partners until the rights deal with ESPN expires in 2036. The ACC’s current TV contract with ESPN reportedly contains a unilateral option for the TV network in 2027 that must be exercised by February 2025 to extend the deal to 2036. Currently, ACC schools are pulling $39.4 million annually from TV revenue.

Another ESPN college football writer, David Hale, wrote as much in a story Monday morning: “In short, Clemson and FSU — and any other school hoping to bolster its economic fortunes — need a way out of the grant of rights before mapping out an alternative future.”

However, Hale adds: “That leads to a whole host of rhetorical gymnastics as each side debates the semantics of a few brief paragraphs.” Really, it’s silly to think you’re going to find a loophole in the grant of rights at this point. If there was one, these ACC teams would already be exploiting it.

Along with the growing revenue gap in the Power 4, conferences are dealing with the new College Football Playoff agreement. The six-year, $7.8 billion College Football contract signed this spring gives 29% annually to the Big Ten and SEC, more than $21 million per school. The ACC will receive 17%, roughly $13 million per institution.