Does Florida State or any ACC power actually have options? Revenue gap concerns threaten to split league

Michael Alford had just gotten off a call with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips. The obvious and immediate question this week was whether the Florida State athletic director had been taken to task. Alford had done all but pound his fist on the table recently demanding more media rights revenue for his school. That or … what, exactly?

“We have to do something because we’re a brand. We’re a very important brand, and we drive the media value in this conference,” Alford told the FSU board of trustees in a Friday meeting streamed on YouTube.

So, the call was not about that — last Friday’s airing of the grievances by Alford in front of his board. But it soon may be. Friday’s presentation was part performance art, part threat to leave the conference.

Boosters, fans, commissioners and the public needed to know from the Florida State perspective that it drives the ACC revenue bus. It isn’t the only athletic department that will sit $30 million in revenue behind the SEC and the Big Ten (beginning in 2024), but as of now, it certainly is the loudest.

By the end of Friday’s session, the world was aware Florida State feels both underpaid and overwrought. Seldom in the history of these sorts of things do ADs tell employers how bad things are getting. The fact that FSU signed a binding contract that guaranteed it both media rights income and a network until 2036 wasn’t good enough.

Back to that call with the commissioner.

“We’ve known each other 20-something years,” Alford said of Phillips. “We’ve been friends a long time. Jim understands the conference is working to find solutions. There’s not a better person doing it than Jim. I think he’s the best in the business.”

It seems as if business is about to be redefined in the ACC. There is that much consternation in the league.

And Florida State isn’t alone. FSU, Clemson, Miami and North Carolina are just … different as national brands (for different reasons) with huge followings.

Combine that with the SEC and Big Ten being in the process of running away with most of the money, power, exposure and — if the narrative follows — championships.

Now, the really hard part for the ACC: doing something about it.

On the surface, FSU has no leverage. Below the surface, FSU has no leverage. You don’t just tear up and redo a 10-figure contract with 13 years remaining until its expiry.

In May 2012, the 14 ACC members signed a 15-year…