FSU Athletic Director Michael Alford makes a strong case for the Seminoles to leave the ACC
Conference realignment is starting to become the new norm in college athletics.
Over the last couple of years, there's been a ton of movement in the sport. The Big 12 will welcome UCF, Cincinnati, BYU, and Houston to the conference this summer. Next year, USC and UCLA are slated to join the Big 10 while Texas and Oklahoma are bound for the SEC.
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It's no secret that Florida State is exploring options outside of the ACC. Last summer, NoleGameday reported that the university had preliminary discussions with the SEC and Big 10, which are the two conferences that could build a significant revenue gap over the others during the next decade.
On Friday, Athletic Director Michael Alford made the first public case for the Seminoles to find a new conference during a General Board Meeting with the FSU Board of Trustees, which included President Richard McCullough.
While presenting to the BOT, Alford explained that Florida State draws 70% more viewers than the average ACC school and ranks No. 14 in the nation in viewership from 2014-22 - which doesn't include the ACC Network.
17 games during that period drew above four million viewers, including three in 2022. The Seminoles' victory against LSU brought in 7.6 million viewers, the third-most viewed Sunday Night Game on record for ABC. The rivalry win on Black Friday against Florida - which he affectionately referred to as "that other school in the middle of the state - brought in nearly seven million viewers and was the highest-rated game on the day after Thanksgiving since 2011 and the most watched game on that since 2005, according to Alford.
FSU and Clemson represent 51% of all 4M+ viewership games in the ACC from 2014-22. The problem is that the two schools combine for 24% of the overall media agreement with the ACC while only bringing in around a combined 14%. FSU only earns 7% of the revenue distribution from the conference while representing 15% of the ACC media agreement.
A proposed solution by Alford is the creation of a revenue distribution model that factors in "who you are, how you produce, how you play, and what your brand is," which is something that he is working on with other Athletic Directors in the conference.
Regardless, the model wouldn't make up the growing gap between the ACC and the SEC/Big 10, which is at risk of approaching $30 million or more per year until 2036, when the conference's Grant of Rights agreement expires.
"We're working with the conference, don't know if we're going to get there," Alford said. "Don't know if the revenue redistribution model will make that up."
According to Alford, distributions per member for the new media deals for the Big 10 ($80 million) and SEC ($72 million) far outweigh what Florida State is bringing in every year. When the Seminoles 'throw everything in', they're receiving roughly $42 million in the current revenue distribution with the ACC.
"Right now, when you throw everything in, we receive about $42 million. That would put us literally $30 million behind our competitors and peers across the country," Alford said. "That's $30 million every year as these contracts until 2036. Remember, some of them [the other conferences] go to market again, so that number is even going to get larger."
While the ACC's Grant of Rights doesn't end for 13 more years, every other P5 conference will go to market at least once before that agreement is up. The Big 10 will begin its new deal in 2023 and it'll last until 2030. The SEC begins in 2024 and ends in 2034. The Big 12 begins in 2025 and ends in 2031.
The question mark at this point is the PAC-12, which is in negotiations to sign a new TV deal. Alford expects that the deal could get done within the next two weeks or other conferences like the Big 10 or Big 12 could look to poach the PAC-12 even further.
"I say all this just because we are in deep discussions, and with chairman Collins and President McCullough, and with Carolyn, we're in the weeds on everything that will impact the future of FSU revenues," Alford said. "Everything from the kegger on things like sponsorships and ticketing to the potential of, I just pointed out our media rights impact and even looking into windows, these agreements come up, what windows would be opening up if some of these realignment dominoes fall."
"If the Big 12 was to get some teams from the PAC, that is going to open up some windows," Alford continued. "If the Big 10 goes and gets some other teams from the PAC that are left out, you are going to open up other media windows where we can go and have that brand showing."
Alford noted that Florida State is in a great market area and that football/basketball is weighed heavily. It's essentially an 80/20 split in how the importance of the football/basketball numbers are analyzed.
Right now, the program's athlete revenue - outside of payouts from the ACC - would rank third in the SEC and third in the Big 10. Florida State is taking this as seriously as any athletic department in the country. The Seminoles are projecting revenues out to 2042 and have brought in consultants to further the importance of shortening the gap.
"We are working every day, the President and I are talking daily about our future. We work with the chairman. We have our revenues probably known and probably different options better than any other athletic department in the country," Alford said. "We go out to 2042 on projected revenues. Hired a consultant to come in and really work with us on it, and evaluating every option that we have going forward. But we have to do something, because we are a brand, and we're a very important brand, and we drive the media value in this conference. We're consistently talking to the conference, the President and I are sitting in meetings where we are making sure that they understand our value to this conference, but at the end of the day if something's not done, we can not be $30 million behind every year compared to our peers."
At one point during the presentation, Alford was asked what it would take for Florida State to leave the ACC. He referred to counsel to answer the question.
"The bylaws have language in there governing exit from the conference and what the cost is of exiting the conference and it is written in there that it is three times the operational budget of the annual operating budget of the ACC, is what the bylaws of the ACC say."
At this point, that means the price would be roughly $120 million. Alford stated that Florida State would "hypothetically" break even after about years of paying the fee, which is due at the time of exiting the conference, per the bylaws.
Alford also went into detail on some of Florida State's fundraising efforts and revenue from tickets. The Seminoles exceeded the revenue budget for tickets by nearly $2.75 million during the year. That included $1.9 million from the bowl game, $640K from the Champions Club, and $250K from suites.
2022 was "a very successful season" and "very profitable for us" according to Alford.
The Bowden Society, which is a new society to help with facility projects is up to 296 members. Alford says the goal is to get to 311 by the end of the year and eventually 1,000. The group has $10,214,501 pledged and $15,191,037 in payments.
The Annual Fund is only at 59% of its membership goal but is at 80% of expected revenue, which shows members are donating more. The fund has $9,412,585 pledged and $15,104,850 in payments. The Coaches Club has $2.1+ million pledged and $2,258,135 in payments.
This feels like a message from Alford and Florida State to the ACC. Make some changes - or we'll take it into our own hands.
"At the end of the day, for Florida State to compete nationally, something has to change moving forward," Alford stated.
You can view the full meeting below.
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