To close gap with Big Ten SEC must add Florida State, Clemson now

Florida State and Clemson are seeking to leave the ACC due to financial reasons and view the SEC as a potential destination.
A legal settlement allows FSU and Clemson to leave the ACC after the 2030 season, but an earlier move to the SEC is possible.
Adding the two football powerhouses could help the SEC stay competitive with the Big Ten, which has recently gained an edge.

Let me take you back to 2024, and an offseason of discontent in the ACC. 

Florida State and Clemson so desperately wanted out of the cash-strapped conference, they were willing to pay nearly half a billion dollars to do it — if they could just find any takers. 

Hello, Greg Sankey? Clemson and Florida State on Line 1. It’s your move, again. 

What FSU did to SEC heavyweight Alabama last weekend, and what Clemson nearly did to LSU, should make clear what was obvious all along. To Sankey, the most powerful man in college sports and SEC commissioner, and anyone else in earshot.

Florida State and Clemson are SEC schools. They look the part, they play the part. Everything they do screams SEC big boy football.

Nearly 16 months ago, the SEC turned up its nose at the duo. The last thing it needed was to be blamed (again) for the contraction (not expansion) of the sport’s elite. 

But that’s all water rushing down the mighty Mississippi now, and directly into a sea of reality after this summer’s legal settlement between the ACC, FSU and Clemson. The ACC’s football heavyweights are leaving the conference on the negotiated date of after the 2030 season. Or sooner. 

If you’re the SEC, why not get ahead of the curve and make the move before something funky happens. Because when has something funky not happened in college football contraction? 

The Big East died. The Pac-12 died (it’s still dead, no matter what the Mountain West deserters think). The Big 12 became the American Conference, and the American became Conference USA, and Conference USA became Championship Subdivision football. 

California and Stanford now play in the ACC, and SMU paid $200 million to join the ACC — and dang near won the league out of the gate. But nothing, I mean nothing, says contraction quite like the 2,800 miles between Big Ten “rivals” Washington and Rutgers. 

Riveting. 

So if your Sankey, you pick up the phone when the Clemson and Florida State presidents call again (because at some point, they will), and reply with one simple yet resounding plan of action. The Tigers and Seminoles pay all exit fees and leave no monetary or legal strings attached to the ACC, and they’re welcome in the SEC.

Because the narrative that FSU and Clemson don’t bring “value” to the SEC has always been a strawman argument.

No one – I mean, no one – believes a team that has played in seven of the 11 College Football Playoffs (and won two by beating, you know, Alabama) doesn’t bring value to the SEC. No one believes Florida State, one of the top television properties in college sports (even during a 2-10 season), doesn’t add value to the SEC.

If ESPN paid pro rata for Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC, they’ll certainly pay the same for Clemson and Florida State.

I’m going to give Sankey and the SEC presidents a pass on the ‘don’t bring value’ nonsense, because they didn’t want to take a blow torch to the ACC like the Big Ten did to the Pac-12. They’re lovers, everyone, not fighters. 

Or something like that.

Look, the 16 SEC presidents know the Seminoles and Tigers would be mega athletic and financial additions to the conference, on the level of Texas and Oklahoma. And truth be told, the SEC needs them in the football-driven world of college sports.

The bully on the block hasn’t won a national title since 2023, and was knocked to its knees in Tallahassee and Columbus, and nearly in Clemson, to begin this season.

Alabama has officially lost its mojo, LSU has lost its voodoo since 2019, and Texas has temporarily lost its inheritance (sorry, Arch, it’s too easy). Georgia has been very un-Georgia the last two seasons, and the next time Florida, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Tennessee or Oklahoma win a game of significance (not against each other) will be the first time in years.

I know this is difficult for the good folks at the SEC offices in Birmingham, Alabama, to hear, but the Big Ten has put space between itself and the SEC. On the field, and as a revenue-generating entity.

That was LSU coach Brian Kelly in May during the SEC spring meetings saying it loud and proud for all to hear: the SEC needs to play more non-conference games against the Big Ten. 

“They’re the champions now,” Kelly said. “We have to go beat them.”

More than anything, the SEC must be proactive and continue to reinvent. Because what’s elite one season could very easily be Mississippi State the next. 

The greatest dynasty in the history of the game could one day be the second coming of Mike Dubose, Mike Price, Dennis Franchione, Mike Shula — and do I really need to continue?

You think Kirby Smart, the game’s best coach, can continue to go 200 mph a day, season after season at Georgia, every single practice, meeting, game and recruiting visit? No one works harder than him, period. 

I don’t think I need to remind everyone what Georgia was before Smart: it went four decades between national titles.

You want crazy? Florida hasn’t won an SEC championship since 2008, and Tennessee since 1998.  

Point being: why limit yourself to what you have, when there’s an opportunity to make it better — and stay inside your geographical footprint?

For all we know, Clemson could lose coach Dabo Swinney and return to the days of Tommy West. Or Florida State could become Willie Taggart’s Seminoles. Or they could enter the league and do exactly what Texas did.

Play for the conference championship in their inaugural season.

Sankey has never been one to stand still, and is always looking to make the SEC better and stronger. His first big expansion move (Texas and Oklahoma) was a no-brainer, and came crawling to his door.

Florida State and Clemson will do the same. It’s only a matter of taking the call and providing the parameters. 

Because what’s elite one season could very easily be Mississippi State the next. 

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.