In John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” Satan says that it is better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. It seems Florida State and ol’ Scratch have something in common. Perhaps we should start saying “Florida Statan” around here.
FSU is the crown jewel of Atlantic Coast Conference football. But that’s akin to being voted the sexiest man alive… on Gilligan’s Island. It doesn’t take much to achieve that honor.
Oh, sure Clemson’s had success in the past. Miami was once a national power before becoming a national scourge. And as strong as Virginia Tech has been the last two decades, the Hokies still have never won a national crown.
The ACC is Hell when it comes to football. But FSU can reign there. If the Seminoles were to move to the more fitting, football-mad SEC, their fight to the top of the leaderboard would no doubt be much, much tougher. But at least they’d be hanging out with kindred spirits.
Lightning-rod columnist Mike Bianchi of The Orlando Sentinel believes it’s time FSU pack its bags and start serving in Heaven. An excerpt from his latest column:
“I’m starting to realize why more and more Florida State fans crave a move to the SEC and why the school reportedly has set up an exploratory committee to look into — among other things — whether the ACC is the best fit for FSU’s athletic program.
It’s becoming more and more apparent that the answer is no. Let’s be bluntly honest here: ACC football just does not excite Florida State’s fan base. Never has. Never will. It didn’t really hit me until last weekend when a record crowd showed up at Doak Campbell Stadium for a game against No. 1-ranked Oklahoma. That’s when I realized FSU fans are starving for the monumental mega-games that the ACC rarely provides.
All you have to do is look at FSU’s four home conference games this season — Maryland, NC State, Miami and Virginia — to understand. Only the Miami game will truly get FSU fans jacked up, and UM-FSU was a big game long before Miami joined the ACC seven years ago. It’s no wonder FSU has thousands and thousands of empty seats for its ACC home games.
Now juxtapose FSU’s ACC schedule with Florida’s SEC home schedule of Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia (neutral site) and Vanderbilt. Three of Florida’s four league home games are marquee matchups against other big-time football schools who bring nearly as many fans on the road as some ACC teams draw at home.
This latest round of expansion shows once and for all that the Seminols are miscast in a basketball league. Philosophically and geographically, Florida State is clearly an SEC school.”
Realignment is driven by television money. If the SEC and FSU could put aside whatever differences divide them and partner up, the networks would pay large chunks of cash to gain access to an SEC upgraded with yet another major, national brand that provides cross-country drawing power.
Academics and administrators at FSU would definitely need some convincing to walk away from a highly-respected academic conference, but money talks. And lots of money talks even louder.
The key here — as was the case at Texas A&M — might be the collective will of the school’s fans. Aggie fans influenced boosters who influenced boardmembers and up the power chain the SEC vibe went. Interestingly, Missouri fans have gone from relatively quiet on expansion a few weeks ago to screaming quite loudly for an SEC berth today.
If FSU fans were to campaign for the SEC, perhaps the FSU administration would listen. And if that happened, then perhaps Mike Slive and the SEC would in turn listen to the Seminoles’ administrators.
(Isn’t it ironic that as we in the media cry and whine about the evils of expansion, fans at some schools are actually influencing the outcome of this realignment game?)
For FSU, the school faces a new spin on an old choice: Is it better to reign in football Hell or serve in gridiron Heaven?
