"It's a matter of who and when we leave” - Former Florida State's QB's verdict to leave ACC resurfaces as Seminoles hunt for new home in Power 5

The CFP snub of the Florida State Seminoles earlier this month expedited efforts from the school to leave the ACC. There's an unspoken assumption in the world of college football that one of the reasons why the Seminoles were left out is because the achievements of an SEC team are more worthy than those of an ACC one. It is believed that this is one of the reasons Florida State was passed over by Alabama.

As a signal of how serious the discussions in Tallahassee are, an anonymous source quoted former Seminoles quarterback and university trustee Drew Weatherford as saying:

"It's not a matter of if we leave, in my opinion. It's a matter of who and when we leave."

According to reports from Yahoo Sports, school officials recently met to discuss potential courses of action to break free of the conference. At the moment, the Tallahassee school is bound to the ACC due to the "Grant of Rights," a contract through which they ceded their TV rights directly to the school. Leaving for a new conference without the potential for TV revenue could spell financial doom for the program.

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ACC: A conference in disarray?

Florida State isn't the only school reported as wishing to leave the ACC. North Carolina and Clemson have also reportedly had meetings on the issue. These three schools were also against the addition of California, Stanford and SMU to the conference next year.

With the de facto dissolution of the Pac-12 and the expansion of the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12, the ACC was left gasping for air in order to avoid becoming the next victim of realignment.

The ACC officials' solution was to bring in the last stragglers of the Pac-12. The move was thought to be a way to save the conference in the long term, but the disparity of goals between these schools and the ACC's biggest programs was a cause for friction.

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What's Florida State's plan to leave the ACC?

While there's no official word on what Florida State might do legally, there are two paths that seem to stand out. One is to get a judge to rule that the school is not bound to the Grant of Rights through a "declaratory judgment action”.

That would probably be done in a friendly Florida jurisdiction, but the lawyers would need to come up with an argument as to why the contract is not as ironclad as previously thought.

The more likely solution would be to get a settlement with the ACC for the Grant of Rights. Oklahoma and Texas already did something similar when leaving the Big 12, for which they incurred a $50 million settlement.