The Aug. 15 deadline for a university to give notice of departure from the Atlantic Coast Conference for the 2024 football season is passing without any tremors out of Tallahassee. But league seismologists are on guard for the needle to twitch at any time.
Prone to public tantrums, Florida State leaders have given every indication that the school wants to leave the ACC as soon as feasible. A university source cautioned Tuesday that “nothing is imminent,” but others in the league aren’t so sure. Keep in mind that everything is fluid in the subterranean world of realignment, but multiple ACC sources told Sports Illustrated they would not be shocked if the Seminoles serve formal notice of a 2025 move in a matter of days or weeks.
That could lengthen the school’s runway on making a complicated, contentious, costly and likely litigious attempted exit, instead of a rushed relocation into the great unknown for ‘24. If FSU (or any other league member, like Clemson) is going to make a move, it likely wouldn’t wait until the deadline next summer to activate it. “Turning it around in 23 months, that’s a thought,” one source tells SI. “The idea of waiting 365 more days to declare [leaving the league] is not the concept.”
