Florida State’s board of trustees meeting sounded like a series of warning shots to the ACC: Fix the revenue gap, or else. “At the end of the day for Florida State to compete nationally, something has to change moving forward,” Seminoles athletic director Michael Alford said. By Alford’s numbers, FSU contributes roughly 15% of the value in the ACC’s media rights deal. But the Seminoles get 7% of the distributions as one of 14 full members of the conference. That has caused a massive revenue gap between FSU and other big-name programs from Power Five conferences, as Alford outlined in Friday’s meeting. The gap between what FSU is set to make from the ACC and what teams from the SEC and Big Ten will make is roughly $30 million per year. Alford said he and other FSU administrators are in “deep discussions” about how to close that gap until the ACC’s current media rights deal expires in 2036. Alford said FSU will look at windows if conference realignment significantly affects the Pac-12, for example. One possibility would be for the ACC to begin weighing its conference payouts toward programs that have more success or are larger brands. Then the conversation got really interesting One trustee asked if a buyout to leave the ACC was “even feasible.” “That is an excellent question,” answered Carolyn Egan, FSU’s vice president for legal affairs and general counsel. Egan said the ACC’s exit fee is equal to three times its annual operating budget. That equals $120 million. If FSU could make up $30 million per year, a trustee asked, does that mean the Seminoles would break even in about four years? RELATED: What will Florida’s new name, image and likeness law actually do? “Hypothetically,” Alford said. The answer hinges on the grant of rights. ACC schools granted their TV rights for home games to the conference, which then distribute the revenue back to the teams. That deal expires in 2036. If FSU could not escape it, then leaving the conference seems financially impossible. Unless there’s an escape clause in the contract or a way for the Seminoles to negotiate another option.