UF AD Scott Stricklin Has Surprising Comments About FSU Possibly Joining SEC

The Gators may not be opposed to the Seminoles joining the SEC

Florida Gators athletic director Scott Stricklin looks at the scoreboard during the second half against the Kentucky Wildcats at Steve Spurrier Field at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Saturday, September 10, 2022. [Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun] / Matt Pendleton/Gainesville Sun / USA

SEC spring meetings are underway this week, so coaches and athletic directors have talked with the media about certain topics. One of the topics asked to Florida's athletic director Scott Stricklin on Wednesday was his stance on Florida State possibly joining the SEC if they can get out of their agreement with the ACC. He gave a somewhat surprising answer.

"We have a good relationship with our friends in Tallahassee," Stricklin started, via Action Network's Brett McMurphy. "No school has a veto in this league. If you get ¾ of the league to support expansion, we're going to expand. Anybody who made our league better, we'd be supportive of joining the SEC... Whenever we've expanded in the past, the leadership of the league was able to lay out this is why it makes sense to bring in Arkansas & South Carolina; A&M & Missouri, why Texas & OU make sense. We all saw financial projections, competitive rationale, and ¾ of the league said 'Let's do this.' If there were ever opportunities out there - and again no one has had any conversations - that is the scenario where somebody walks in and says 'Here's a school, here's what they bring to the table, here's how it makes us all better.' We would be supportive of that"

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For a long time, the rumor was Florida would be against FSU's possible entry into the SEC like Texas A&M tried to do with Texas. The Aggies felt they were "betrayed" by the SEC for allowing Texas into the league since it broke a "gentleman's agreement" from when TAMU joined the league. That doesn't seem to be the case here, with Stricklin even saying he'd support FSU in the SEC.

Florida State is in the middle of suing the ACC as they try to get out of the conference and move to a league that prioritizes revenue, along with Clemson. The Big 10 and SEC have emerged as the major conferences and have higher payouts than the ACC will. FSU understandably doesn't want to miss out on that pay disparity.

FSU doesn't have an open invite from either major conference right now, as they are an acting member of the ACC, but they're arguably the biggest brand available that isn't already in the Big 10 or SEC. While Stricklin says the SEC has had no conversations about the scenario, he sees it as an opportunity to add a major university into the league. Whether FSU's administration prefers the SEC or the Big 10 has yet to be seen, though part of their lawsuit against the ACC deals with ESPN, who also owns the TV rights for the SEC.

Florida fans already weren't fans of Stricklin and his tenure in Gainesville, so openly supporting his university's biggest rival in a possible move to his conference likely hasn't won him any more support. It's a move that would make sense for the long-term success of the conference though. Florida State is one of the premier brands in college football and features successful women's soccer and softball programs. FSU Football's appeal has never been higher and they've still drawn in some of the best TV ratings of any team in the country.

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