There has been chatter for nearly a year now that Florida State was kicking around the idea of leaving the ACC.
The Seminoles being the first Power Five program left out of the College Football Playoff field despite an undefeated season looks to be the final straw for Florida State and the league.
Ross Dellenger reports this morning that the FSU Board of Trustees will discuss the Seminoles conference future during their meeting scheduled for Friday, and the result of that conversation is expected to produce a legal filing that will serve as their initial step to leave the ACC.
From all indications, this is simply the first step of a process that could lead to a huge legal battle that would captivate the world of college athletics.
The filing is expected to take aim at the grant of rights, the legal document between the ACC, its schools and TV partner ESPN that is supposed to bind the parties together through the 2035-36 academic year.
Clemson and North Carolina are two additional ACC programs that have not hid their feelings about the league's grant of rights.
Dellenger notes that the legal move is "not expected to serve as a notice of departure from the ACC" quite yet. That would be more than a year away, but this legal maneuver "could set the stage for more ACC programs to follow suit, challenging the league and its grant of rights."
The league is set to add Cal, Stanford and SMU in the latest round of conference realignment, a move that Florida State, UNC all voted against following much of the Pac-12 being pilfered away by the Big Ten (Oregon and Washington) and Big 12 (Utah, Colorado, Arizona and Arizona State).
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.