As if Alabama needed any more money, they got it. What does this mean for Florida State? It means that Florida State, and everyone else for that matter, is going to become but a tiny little image in Alabama's rear view mirror. Capturing a media deal like the Alabama's is what will mean the difference between good and great... or great and elite, for that matter.
Now, before we delve into some of the many financial issues facing Florida State athletics, I will preface everything below by saying this: Florida State will be ok. Why is that? Because, even without the type of money that Alabama or Florida has, Florida State just won a national championship. And they did so while making it look easy The reason it looked so easy is because Florida State sits within one of the most fertile recruiting territories. So, while Florida State may not always have the money, they should always have the caliber of players needed to compete at an elite level, year in, year out.
Athletic directors at Arkansas, Florida State and Miami say their schools would consider joining the Southeastern Conference if the league extended an invitation.
The schools have agreed to be placed under consideration for acceptance, the athletic directors said.
Conference Commissioner Roy Kramer said the 10-team SEC, whose presidents unanimously voted to explore expansion two weeks ago, is only in the preliminary process of determining which schools might be interested.
...
Kramer would not discuss the candidates and said there is no timetable for when the SEC might extend formal bids to join.
Kramer and athletic directors from across the nation were attending the National Assn. of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention, which continues through Wednesday.
"I think realignment (of major conferences) is inevitable," Louisiana State Athletic Director Joe Dean said Monday. "This is somewhat of a television-driven thing."
Arkansas has been in the Southwest Conference for 76 years. Florida State is an independent in football and a Metro Conference member in other sports. Miami is an independent in all sports.
"There are very few schools that can make it as an independent," Miami Athletic Director Sam Jankovich said. "We can make it as an independent. But you have to look at what is down the road 10 years from now."
Should Arkansas join, it might open the door for SWC brethren Texas and Texas A&M to be considered by the SEC. Texas' big television market is attractive to the SEC.
Interestingly enough, two of those moves worked out--Arkansas and Texas A&M both wound up in the SEC. Florida State still culturally fits into the SEC model. Miami had the athletic prowess to complete on an SEC level but didn't fit into the demographic dynamic of the SEC.
So, what happened? FSU joined the ACC. Why did FSU join the ACC? It was for more money--and sure, this angers some in the SEC, but could you realistically look yourself in the mirror and say you're going to do something that's going to cause you to lose money? Here's what happened:
Florida State joins the Atlantic Coast Conference this morning when Bernard Sliger, university president, announces it at a 10:30 news conference.
The move was unanimously endorsed by the Board of Regents at its Jacksonville meeting Friday.
As the Seminoles become members of the ACC, the Southeastern Conference continues to act like the jilted girlfriend. First, it was the immature act of voting not to give Florida State further consideration for membership.
``I`m totally shocked at what the Southeastern Conference presidents did,`` football coach Bobby Bowden said. ``It`s hard for me to understand.``
Then, there is the rumor SEC schools will not play Florida State beyond current contracts. It was apparently based on a request of FSU to control its schedule if it joined the SEC.
``Not an unreasonable request,`` Athletic Director Bob Goin said. ``We`ve been playing Southeastern Conference schools and haven`t been in a conference. They are great universities, and we`d hope to continue our relationship with them.``
The Seminoles will pay a fee of between $300,000 and $500,000 to become a conference member in July 1991.
Goin said basketball and non-revenue sports would become conference members for the 1991-1992 season. He`s hoping to have football positioned by 1993 but indicated 1994 would be more likely.
Florida State had several criteria for conference membership:
-- Institutional and conference academic compatibility: The ACC is one of the nation`s top academic conferences. FSU would have been at the top of the SEC but is more compatible with the ACC schools.
-- Maintain national football image: The ACC is an underrated football conference. It`s had a national champion since the SEC has. If FSU eventually plays seven or eight conference games, there will be room for additional games of national prominence, something an SEC schedule might not allow. It`s also no secret that SEC schools chop each other up on football Saturdays, something unattractive to the Seminoles.
-- Improve the basketball program: It will happen almost immediately. ``There will be impact on our recruiting,`` coach Pat Kennedy said. ``The ACC simply puts you at the highest level. We`ll naturally have to upgrade everything we do. There are no off nights in the ACC.`` The SEC would have been an improvement over the Metro where Louisville and Memphis State are the perennial powers. ``I was prepared to go either way,`` Kennedy said. ``It didn`t matter if it was Kentucky, LSU or Georgia coming in or North Carolina, Duke and Georgia Tech.`` It will help FSU`s attendance and finances, ``the whole ball of wax,`` Kennedy said.
-- Non-revenue sports including baseball, a money maker at FSU, would be enhanced: ``We drew 108,000 last year, and this will help improve it,`` coach Mike Martin said. ``The ACC is underrated in every sport except basketball. It had four teams, North Carolina, Clemson, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State, make the regionals in baseball last year. There`s no way for us to match the success we`ve enjoyed in Metro playing in the ACC.``
-- Paying the bills: Florida State made $10 million in football last season and $700,000 in basketball. As an independent, FSU kept all of the money.
Using last year`s revenue figures, FSU would lose $1 million in all sports by joining the SEC, but would gain $2 million by joining the ACC based on the differing distribution formulas.
For instance, if FSU had a bowl revenue of $3 million, the SEC is equal shares but two for the participating team. In the ACC, it is $500,000 to the participating school, $100,000 to the conference, and the remainder is split 50-50 between the ACC and the participating team.
``It`s the security of knowing when a rainy days comes,`` Goin said, ``you`ll have some brothers around to help you out.``
-- Compliance and leadership: The ACC has been at the forefront of NCAA reform, and its commissioner, Gene Corrigan, is considered among the best at his job.
``The ACC provides everything we were looking for,`` Goin said.
If Florida State had joined the SEC, it would have just been member No. 12. It had nothing to give the conference that the conference doesn`t already have, and being in the same conference with Florida, it would have had nothing different to offer recruits.
The same isn`t true in the ACC. The ACC will draw from Florida State`s football prominence and its presence gives the league an entrance into the state`s television audience. The Seminoles will benefit from the conference`s basketball stature.
``Like a good marriage, there is some give on both sides,`` Goin said, ``and it has been well accepted by everyone.`` With the exception of the SEC, but, who cares? After all, it was the SEC that left Florida State at the altar and not the other way around.
The ACC was a much stronger conference back in 1990. It wasn't the weak cupcake that most people make it out to be. It had two things going for it: more money and a stronger commissioner. In fact, here's what the decision boiled down to for FSU:
Using last year`s revenue figures, FSU would lose $1 million in all sports by joining the SEC, but would gain $2 million by joining the ACC based on the differing distribution formulas.
So, join the SEC and lose $1 million or join the ACC and gain $2 million. Simple math. And for a while, it worked out. But things change. And things may, of course, change again, but the landscape of college football indicates we are moving toward a 4 conference structure which means FSU needs to be in either the Pac-12, SEC, Big Ten, or some ACC/Big Twelve conference.
So, college football fans can gripe about FSU turning down the SEC back in 1990. We still don't even know if the offer was actually a real offer. The SEC's gripes, however, if the offer was real, are legitimate. However, FSU was still in its infancy, unable to weather financial storms. Does FSU want into the conference now? You betchya. I'd say let bygones be bygones. FSU, you made a mistake. SEC, don't double down on that mistake and turn away from the perfect conference expansion candidate: strong sports, strong athletics, and while it duplicates the Florida TV market to some extent, FSU has a national brand. People will tune in to watch FSU play the likes of Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida on a regular basis.
Many fans will continue to lament the fact that FSU was the potential #14 member to the SEC? It's a shame that didn't pan out. We have discussed this ad neaseum. FSU's road to the SEC is harder now (i.e., more expensive and frankly, almost impossible) while the SEC only seems more entrenched in its duty to not duplicate TV markets. Most observers criticised the SEC's decision to grab Missouri, but last year, the SEC Championship featured a team most people thought couldn't be beat: Missouri. Sure enough, Auburn beat them and then almost gave FSU a full run for its money. I'd argue that the SEC would have been better off grabbing Texas A&M, FSU, GT, and Clemson. They would have had the best football conference in the land. Now, we just have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime, remember that TV revenue is not just where the TV is located but also the quality of the product. The ACC, by far, has a bigger population across its territory than the SEC yet the SEC has more TV viewership. How's that possible? It's because people, regardless of where they are located, want to watch the best product possible and that, right now, is SEC football.
There are a few things FSU can do to make more money... and it wouldn't take long. The first step would be to recruit Notre Dame as a full member in the ACC... and invite Navy. Why not? With news that Notre Dame was joining the ACC in 2013, my immediate thought was to figure out how Notre Dame could join as a full member. Notre Dame joining the ACC made, and makes, a lot of sense; there are and were quite a few historical matchups and rivalries in place. Notre Dame has quite a few of its regular opponents in the ACC (and teams that it has played recently) including Pitt, Boston College, Georgia Tech (and the recent opponents like Miami, Wake Forest, and Duke).
Should the ACC add Navy if Notre Dame would accept full membership? The answer is so obviously, painfully: YES.
Here's what the conferences should look like at that point:
North:
Boston College, Navy, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest
South:
Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina State
A quick note: let's forget about the idea of Miami and FSU playing twice in a season. For the purposes of developing a true North/South ACC, we just need to move on. A conference structure like this means FSU, Clemson, or Miami will likely play Notre Dame or Virginia Tech on a regular basis, subject to noise.
Would you be in favor of Navy joining the ACC if it meant getting Notre Dame?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_nhaTXNsdw&w=560&h=315]
The second thing that FSU could do is fully leverage its contract with Nike. It appears that maybe it is in the process of doing so, given the changes made to FSU's historic logo. If Louisville is able to capture big bucks from Adidas, then surely Florida State, as the defending NCAA National Champion, could leverage its recent success and national brand. If Florida State yields anything less than what Louisiville earned in its contract with Adidas, well, then Florida State is just plain doing it wrong. And not only that, but you nearly sacrificed the loyalty of your fan base for the sake of a contract that failed to yield a significant, incremental increase of funding from Nike.
The third thing that FSU could do is... be smarter about its strategy for selling tickets at the championship game, be it conference or national. Why is it that many fans were trying to buy tickets to the national championship game and we then find out this week that Florida State absorbed $710,385 worth of unsold tickets? What is the cause of the discrepancy and how do we fix it? It reeks of incompetence; to hear of fans struggling to find tickets and watching FSU absorb tickets that could have been sold. Sure, I'm sure there's a good reason for what happened. But make an effort to fix it.
Comments? Questions? Kudos?