Florida State joined the ACC back in 1992 despite having a chance to join what has always been considered the nation’s premier college football conference, the SEC. Why? Bobby Bowden felt playing in the ACC gave his team a better chance to win national championships, for starters.
During an appearance on Paul Finebaum’s show on Tuesday, Bowden admitted he intentionally avoided the intense competition of the SEC.
“I felt that it was too difficult to win through the SEC to win a national championship,” Bowden said. “I felt like our best route would be to go through the ACC and that did prove out to be correct. But, I don’t know if we could have made it through the SEC.”
Bowden said something similar on his Facebook page last year. However, he noted at the time that FSU had applied for SEC membership several times and been turned down. Bowden also stated that joining the ACC had to do with academics.
“I merely agreed to whatever those responsible decided,” Bowden wrote. “I had always been an SEC fan. I did feel, however, that between the SEC and the ACC, the best road to a national title was through the ACC. A national championship was my number one goal every year. The SEC is so tough, top to bottom, that they beat up on each other week after week.”
Florida State played for a national championship five times under Bowden and won two titles. For that reason alone, you could say the decision to join the ACC paid off.
The SEC is almost always the toughest conference in the country. We may have seen an example of that this past season, when only one SEC team — Alabama — made the inaugural College Football Playoff and was bounced by Ohio State, the eventual national champion. Many feel Alabama was the best team but was simply worn down.
Simply put, it’s easier to win enough games and blow out opponents during the regular season when you’re not in the SEC. Bowden has no reason to sugarcoat that, just as he had no reason to hide his feelings about Jameis Winston in the same interview.
