IF WE NEED AN OUTPOURING IN THIS NATION, STAND TALL FOR FLORIDA STATE

Here's a college football program lost in space, locked from a playoff berth by one-loss teams after a 13-0 season, which means the administration has every right to flee the Atlantic Coast Conference

     The Redneck Riviera deserves us all. From the day Florida State was slashed from the College Football Playoff — by committee members who favored politics and ESPN, which are one and the same — the Seminoles deserve our approval to find better financial and reputational glory. This is the university of Deion Sanders, Bobby Bowden, three national championships and three Heisman Trophy winners.

     Why would we hold Tallahassee against them? So it’s too southerly to be in the Big Ten and too centric to Florida and Alabama to be in the Southeastern Conference. The Seminoles still have every right to flaunt their legendhood and enter the power structure of college football. Certainly, they aren’t there now, wedged against the flimsier grain in the Atlantic Coast Conference, where the perception of a lower brand was intact though they won all 13 games and finished the regular season with a third-string quarterback. In a fair world, Texas or Alabama would stay home with one loss apiece, including Nick Saban’s loss to the Longhorns in September.

     Instead, Florida State is the first Power 5 school rejected from the CFP, a sad loser in a league that has fallen beneath the almighty two colossuses. Why stick around when realignment rules the ranks? Texas and Oklahoma made their way to the SEC, followed by USC and UCLA to the Big Ten. In truth, I prefer discussing Rudy Giuliani and his bankruptcy protection over another round of restoration in campus sports. But if programs on similar traditional planes can shift gears in this mind-tussling climate, why can’t the school’s lawyers break a grant of ACC rights that controls FSU’s media role through 2036?

     Friday brings a special board-of-trustees meeting to discuss the university’s long-range future. Moving to a new conference will cost well beyond an exit fee of $120 million, along with courtroom warfare, not to mention acceptance from the SEC or Big Ten. Both are bloated by expanded schedules and institutional affairs and wouldn’t necessarily open the doors to Doak Campbell Stadium. In due time, though, Florida State should be in the thick of this wacky-ass arrangement of top dogs. A victory means other ACC types will want their own paths, such as Miami, Clemson and North Carolina.

     Fine. Take them, too. And soon enough, we’ll have a cool 40 atop the sport, divided by a 12-team playoff tournament. The Big Ten might want a sneak outfit near Saban, Kirby Smart and The Swamp. The SEC would pursue geographical continuity. Let them brawl, and at some point, we won’t have to hear complaints from a governmental lemon. When asked if Florida State is considering leaving the ACC, president Richard D. McCullough said, “Very seriously.”

     “The consequences of giving in to a narrative of the moment are destructive, far-reaching, and permanent,” FSU athletic director Michael Alford said of being dispatched to a lesser bowl. “Not just for Florida State, but college football as a whole. It is unforgivable.”

     “It’s not a matter of if we leave (the ACC), in my opinion. It’s a matter of how and when we leave,” said trustee Drew Weatherford, a former FSU quarterback.

     Said McCullough: “We need to do whatever it takes to get there. We’re behind. … I have a lot of constituents. I have alums. I have coaches. I have student-athletes. I have the board. I have the boosters. There are a lot of people that have an opinion about what we should and should not be doing. There are a lot of people in my key stakeholders group that have great concerns about where we’re going to end up 10 years down the line or whatever. I’m a straight shooter. I gave my opinion about what I thought needed to be done for us to remain competitive.”

     So as notable players skip out on a bowl appearance against Georgia, Florida State begins a fight on a larger plateau. Money brings a larger growl. Next year, the Big Ten will distribute $70 million to each school, and the SEC will be in a similar category. The ACC? Each program received only $39.4 million last year and won’t see enough increases. Think Tallahassee should receive second financial billing?

     Everyone has an opinion about the future, including those whose universities have moved forward. “I think we should all be independent in football,” UCLA coach Chip Kelly said. “You can have a 64-team conference that's in the Power 5. That's a lot of games, and there's a lot of people in the TV world that would go through it. You can call it Amazon, Nike, bid that out to things. The players should get paid, and you can get rid of (NIL) and the schools should be paying the players because the players are what the product is. And the fact that they don't get paid is, really, the biggest travesty.”

     For now, we’re just trying to prevent more tears in the hinterlands. “The most challenging couple of weeks of coaching I’ve ever had,” coach Mike Norvell said. “You had to learn how to work through disappointment, hurt, frustration and anger — every bit of it — for 18-to-22-year-old kids and a 42-year-old coach. It's hard. We did everything we needed to to win 13 games this season.

     “I wasn’t in that room. And it wasn’t my choice.”

     Who knew the committee’s call would lead to open hostility? Always receptive to wrongdoing, America should weigh in, with a potential victory party at the Flora-Bama Lounge, home of the “famous mullet toss” right there on the Florida-Alabama line. Don’t ask.

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     Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.