Florida State's AD unhappy with ACC's lack of revenue: 'Something has to change'

When the athletic director at Florida State, Michael Alford, expresses public frustration toward his conference, the ACC has no choice but to listen. Outside of perhaps Clemson football and North Carolina basketball, no brand is bigger than Florida State. 

That's why ears at the league office have to be perking up after Alford expressed discontent with the fact that the league is expected to start lagging behind both the SEC and Big Ten in yearly revenue. The difference is not a small chunk of change, either. 

Per ESPN, the ACC will fall behind by roughly $30 million per year once the Big Ten and SEC start their new television contracts. 

"Something has to change because we cannot compete nationally being $30 million behind every year," Alford told ESPN. "It's not one year. We're talking about $30 million compounded year after year."

Notably, Alford had also used the phrase "something has to change" with the Florida state board of trustees in the past week, so it's rather clear that there's a growing sense of discontent regarding the state of the ACC.

And frankly, there should be. The Big Ten is adding USC and UCLA and the SEC made two huge swings with the eventual additions of Texas and Oklahoma. Those two conferences are now approaching "super conference" territory and the rest of the Power 5 -- the Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 -- have to adjust.

The Big 12 has at least added BYU, Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston, but it appears as if the Pac-12 and ACC are either standing pat or moving backward. The Pac-12 is being poached and may continue to shrink, while Cincinnati and UCF could have potentially been good fits for the ACC. Instead, they're Big 12 schools now.

With super conferences come super television ratings and super television deals. The SEC and Big Ten are benefiting from this new model of expansion, but it sounds like the ACC could end up quickly falling behind.