Before Florida State and the ACC sued each other to start the dueling litigation that, finally, has a prayer at resolution, FSU trustee Drew Weatherford made a headline-grabbing comment.

"Unless something drastic changes on the revenue side at the ACC, it's not a matter of if we leave," Weatherford said. "It's a matter of how and when we leave."

At the time -- an August 2023 board meeting -- the focus was on the former FSU quarterback's second sentence. Perhaps it should have been on the beginning.

Unless something drastic changes on the revenue side.

We might be getting closer to finding out what that vague word -- drastic -- means. Recent reports by Yahoo and ESPN have given credibility to days of rumblings about a new revenue-sharing proposal to keep FSU and Clemson in the ACC.

The general idea is that the conference would increase payouts for schools that draw higher TV ratings. Those schools traditionally include FSU and Clemson (which has also sued the league).

The idea isn't new. FSU athletic director Michael Alford raised it during a February 2023 meeting. He presented figures showing FSU was responsible for about 15% of the conference's media-rights value but received only 7% of the revenue. Instead, the ACC tweaked its payout structure to reward on-field success, not brand power.

Details of this new proposed structure are scarce but will (obviously) be vital to whether it has a chance of becoming reality. Will schools like Wake Forest and Syracuse have to take a pay cut? If so, are they willing to accept less money for (in theory) more stability? What assurances will FSU and Clemson (or North Carolina or Miami or anyone else) provide to keep this same scenario from playing out in a few years? What will stop them from taking more money now and still leaving later?

For FSU, the move might seem odd because the 'Noles have spent months blasting the ACC in court filings. One from April said "the entire ACC enterprise has failed," the league's current and past commissioner were plagued by "conflicts of interest, motives of self-preservation" and that they led the conference "to its existential brink."

Not a good way to stay on the Christmas card list.

But many of FSU's public comments were more diplomatic and nuanced.

In that August 2023 board meeting, FSU president Richard McCullough said the Seminoles "love the ACC" and their ESPN partners, and that the school's goal "would be to continue to stay in the ACC."

"I believe that FSU will have to at some point consider very seriously leaving the ACC unless there were a radical change to the revenue distribution," McCullough said.

Unless there were a radical change to the revenue distribution.

"To me, it's not personal towards the ACC," trustee Jorge Gonzalez said then. "It's not personal towards any of the sister universities in the conference, but we have a major math problem."

Major math problem.

"We don't want to play games," board chairperson Peter Collins said then. "We want to compete. We can compete. We are competing. But when the gap gets that big ... it's insurmountable."

If -- if -- this proposal comes to fruition, will the gap no longer be insurmountable? If the gap becomes manageable, the ACC's other advantages come into play. It's respected academically, to the extent that academics still matter in major-college athletics. FSU has three decades' worth of history in the league, to the extent that historical ties still mean anything.

When FSU chose the ACC in 1990, then-coach Bobby Bowden said FSU "can probably mean more" to the ACC than the SEC (which was also interested). That's still true; the Seminoles are one of the ACC's premier programs but wouldn't stand out from the Georgias or Michigans of the SEC/Big Ten.

Though FSU wants to compete, as Collins said, in all sports, football drives everything. Hold your jokes about the Seminoles' 0-3 start. Does Florida State have a better shot at making the College Football Playoff in the ACC (a league it can win) or the SEC (where it's fighting to be in the top four)? Because the 12-team playoff is new this year, we don't have any precedents to answer the question. But it's not outlandish to think the ACC can help keep FSU nationally relevant.

If something drastic changes on the revenue side.

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