Florida’s place in the SEC has given the Gators a kind of long-term shelter as college athletics keeps tearing itself apart and reassembling in real time. That’s part of why a new wrinkle in the ongoing realignment conversation matters so much for Florida fans: some of the school’s nearby ACC rivals may suddenly have a much faster route to the SEC if a proposed change to the Save College Sports Act becomes law.
The bill itself is aimed at reshaping NIL and transfer rules, while also restricting when a coach can take a new job before a season is over. But tucked into it is a major conference-realignment penalty: any school that changes leagues would have to sit out and function as an independent for five years.
That’s where Florida U.S. Senator Ashley Moody comes in.
According to a Yahoo Sports report, Moody has filed an amendment that would carve out an exception for schools that leave their current conference within 180 days of the bill being enacted. If that survives, it would open a very short escape hatch for Power Four schools looking to move.
The joke, of course, is that the ACC would be empty before the dust settled.
“But the ACC can’t sink!”
She’s made of iron, sir! I assure you, she can… and she will. It is a mathematical certainty.
From Florida’s perspective, though, there’s not much reason to help make life easier for schools that might want to jump into the SEC’s orbit. The Gators have already dealt with the scheduling ripple effects of realignment.
This year will be just the second time since 2012 that Florida has played Auburn, while Missouri became an annual opponent that nobody cared about. Florida also won’t play Tennessee this season, and instead will host Ole Miss and Oklahoma.
Now imagine that same kind of mess getting even bigger if schools like UNC are added to the mix.
And that’s before you even get to what Florida’s in-state rivals are already dealing with. FSU and Miami are having to fly out west for conference games against Stanford and Cal. So no, Gators fans probably aren’t lining up to make anybody else’s path to the SEC smoother.
Still, there are two realities sitting right in front of college football right now. First, this bill still has plenty of hurdles to clear, and nobody knows what the final version will look like, if there is one at all. Second, the sport is operating like a ship without a captain, with the NCAA content to stay in its wheelhouse until the water finally crashes through the walls.
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