Has FSU learned it's lesson on GORs?

 Gene has been on the ACC's shortcomings for years, but FINALLY, the other FSU beat writers and fans (7-10 years late for both) are starting to get it.  ACC is no longer viable and more importantly, it's only goal is to trap it's fellow members, not improve the situation.

Still 14 years from expiring, but I'm starting to believe FSU won't screw up and resign another GOR.  It might not matter because SEC/B1G revenue gaps will kill off all competition in about 5years.

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-spring-meeting-next-week.336565/page-2#post-5991824

Gene Williams

With the benefit if hindsight, a case can be made that the decision to extend the GOR may have been worse than the initial choice to sign the GOR. It's like the old proverb, 'fool me once, same on you, fool me twice, shame on me.'

At the time Thrasher agreed to extend the GOR he full well knew it hadn't lived up to the original promises and that ACC revenue was trending in the wrong direction vis a vis the other P5 conferences. It was pretty much known by then that ND was not joining the ACC full-time as was promised back in 2013. So, there were plenty of red flags surrounding the ACC, Swofford's veracity (or overly optimistic view re. the ACC's future), and ESPN's commitment to the conference.

In this 2016 interview with Warchant, Thrasher cited more 'look-ins' with ESPN and the widespread distribution of the soon to be launched ACC Network as factors in the decision to lock into a long term GOR. I'm not sure who was advising Thrasher, but the fact that he felt FSU had 'little risk of being hurt by the long term deal' shows how clueless he was. Many, including myself, were shouting from the rooftops about how damaging the GOR was to the long term viability of FSU football and athletics. There were so many red flags at the time that it's beyond baffling that he would agree to a lengthy extension with what appears to be little or no due diligence.

My best guess is that Thrasher by his nature is a politician first and as a politician is myopic on the short term without regards to long term ramifications. Agreeing to the GOR extension gave FSU a slight bump in revenue (I think a million or so at the time) and kept a soon to be retired university president from having to deal the complications and aggravation of rocking the boat by defying the ACC and ESPN. Simply put, he left the mess for the next guy to deal with.

I do agree that FSU, with its new leadership, finally sees the errors of its ways by being tied down to a floundering conference.

To your third point, I've heard Alford and others in a position of leadership are actively engaged in conversations with other ADs and commissioners about the future of college sports. Wish I were a fly on the wall in those conversations, but I'm not so I don't know the details. That said, FSU and a lot of decision-makers realize that the future of college football is in jeopardy and that some things need to change, and soon. GOR and the conference revenue gap are just a couple of the issues that are at the forefront of these discussions along with NIL, conference expansion, NCAA and transfer portal.

No matter the final solution, I still have not heard how schools like FSU, Miami and Clemson, assuming they are going to be a part of the super conference, can get out of the ACC's GOR. It makes complete sense for these three schools to leave the ACC for greener pastures, but the GOR Is going to be a major hurdle. Even though these schools are being screwed by the GOR, all the dead weight in the conference (BC, Duke, GT, UVA, Wake, Syracuse) are beneficiaries of the agreement. They will be highly motivated to fight to keep their cash cows from leaving the conference. I honestly don't know what the solution is. Hopefully, somebody much smarter than me can figure it out because IMO the future of the sport I grew up loving is in real trouble.