Being the big fish in the ACC worked out pretty great for FSU in the 90s, but maybe they'd have done this differently with the benefit of hindsight.
There’s been a long history of interest from the SEC in certain ACC powers as well. In fact, in 1990, when the league voted to expand, officials explored a variety of targets, seriously vetting Florida State before settling on South Carolina and Arkansas. Years later, then-coach Bobby Bowden and several athletic administrators involved in the process revealed that they turned down an invitation.
https://twitter.com/RossDellenger/status/1658092057586483201
Notably absent is the historical record of conference realignment, namely, the Pac's attempt to kill the Big 12. Yeah, the Big 10 did that too, but the Pac is on the verge of extinction, which feels good given their gloating 10 years ago about putting the Big 12 out of business. I don't see many poster talk about it, but Larry Scott's actions 10 years ago struck me as malicious, and the Pac may be getting its just due.
Larry Scott was unsuccessful and he's long gone. Washington State, Oregon State, Cal, and Stanford fans had nothing to do with that and they, don't deserve to be relegated to the group of 5 because of things they had nothing to do with.
Sidenote, I take like Ross Dellenger, a lot, but the first sentence of that tweet is rough ridin' stupid.
They don't deserve it, but neither do we, and we've been relegated already. We weren't dropped to G5 level, but the Big 12 won't ever be seen as a top tier football conference again.
Conference realignment overall sucks crap and is bad for the health of college sports. Imagine a 12 team playoff with auto bids to the champs of the original Big East, ACC, sec, big 10, big 12,and PAC with 6 at large selections. That would have been soooo rough ridin' fun.