Rob Long: Follow The Money
I know this is Baltimore and some of you are going to say, "We don't care about college football." However, to the majority of the country, college football is only second to the National Football League.
In fact, all of the college conference realignment you see now is all about football, not basketball as many people in big college basketball areas would like to believe.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is the latest power conference to be hit with rumors of realignment. With all of the money being thrown around, it seems Florida State would benefit financially from bolting to a more lucrative situation.
It's been reported that a non-football powerhouse like Northwestern makes about $25 million from football. Yes, Northwestern. That's not because of the great things that the program is doing. It's because of it's affiliation with the Big 10 conference.
Florida State makes about $12.5 million from football. That's because the ACC doesn't have it's own television network and doesn't generate the revenue that the Big 10 does. Why would the Seminoles stay?
In the old days, the ACC was king. That's before the current business model of college athletics. Now, it's about television and momentum. The ACC is behind in both categories. The question is when and if Florida State decides to leave, how will that effect Clemson and Miami? If they leave, what becomes of the ACC?
