One of the bigger storylines headed into this college football season was Florida State and the Seminoles’ lawsuit against the ACC. The idea was to get out of the ACC Grant of Rights deal that they felt severely limited the amount of revenue they could bring in. 

They also detailed in the lawsuit that they felt being in the ACC left them at a competitive disadvantage. They cited the addition of Cal, Stanford, and SMU as an example of depleting the level of competition within the conference. And after the 2023 snub, they had a point. That is not the case this year and SMU has proven it.

The program that Florida State used to complain to the ACC about a lack of competition and not taking football seriously is now ranked in the top 10, has a very good chance to make the first-ever 12-team playoff, and is looking at an ACC championship in its first year in the league.

This season might be the worst thing to happen to Florida State in a long time. Before this season, they had a leg to stand on. They had just gone undefeated in the regular season, won the ACC title, and suffered a historic snub that half the country felt was unjust. The lawsuit made sense. Maybe if the Noles had a single meaningful top-25 win in 2023 the committee would have overlooked Jordan Travis’s injury and allowed FSU in the playoff. So with the lack of meaningful ACC competition argument, plus the insanity of the ACC’s media rights deal, FSU had a good argument for getting out of the ACC. That’s part of the reason Clemson joined them. 

FSU lawyers called out all three of the newcomers to the conference, saying that the ACC was diminishing the conference’s strength of schedule and media profile. They went on to specifically call out SMU and criticized the ACC for letting the Mustangs in after the Big 12 had passed on them multiple times because of their lack of prowess on the gridiron. Then the 2024 season started.

Florida State started 0-3 with a trio of bad losses before picking up their first win in a close one against Cal. SMU on the other hand started 3-1 with their only loss coming to a very good BYU team. Then they met in Dallas for SMU’s ACC debut. The Seminoles felt confident they had found their footing after a win and many people felt the same way. SMU dashed any confidence quickly, poetically dominating the Noles by 26. SMU would go on to a 10-1 record at time of writing, a number nine ranking in the CFP poll, and a shot at an ACC title and a national title. Meanwhile, FSU is wallowing in its own mess with two wins and zero hope.

It just goes to show that confidence can be key, but overconfidence can be your downfall. Florida State is right in their lawsuit against the ACC, but they had every opportunity not to directly call out other teams in the conference. They chose to act like a top dog after two meaningful seasons since 2016 and it came back to bite them.