Florida State becoming independent is ‘not a true option’ as it considers conference future, AD says

Independence in football is “not a true option” for Florida State, athletic director Michael Alford told The Athletic.

There’s been a great deal of speculation about Florida State’s future either as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference or elsewhere, were the Seminoles to figure out a way out of the league’s grant of rights, which binds the schools to each other and the ACC through 2036. Alford said that FSU is “still analyzing what our options are,” but independence does not appear to be one of them.

“I don’t think it’s an option because of scheduling and everything that comes along with that, and where media contracts are now,” Alford said Tuesday. “But I’m not going to lie to you and say I didn’t spend 10 minutes on it. … I have a great staff that knows that I want to look at things and know what all my options are but also have analytics and not just throw something up there. It needs to have some support behind it so we can look at it.

“Is that a true option? No, it’s not a true option.”

Notre Dame is independent in football but an ACC member in all other sports that the conference offers. The Irish have continually expressed their desire to remain independent, assuming they have access to the national championship and a satisfactory media rights deal that supports the athletic department. But they’re the last of a dying breed, as Army announced last month it will be joining the American Athletic Conference and forgoing its football independence, bringing the number of FBS independents down to three: Notre Dame, UConn and UMass. Washington State and Oregon State, the two remaining Pac-12 members, are also in the process of figuring out how they’re going to build a football schedule for next season. Independence — or quasi-independence — can be challenging.

Florida State was one of the three schools that voted against the ACC adding Stanford, Cal and SMU. The Seminoles were also vocal about their push for unequal revenue sharing this spring, believing that they deserved a bigger slice of the pie than their peers because of their brand value and viewership draw. Members of FSU’s Board of Trustees openly discussed potentially leaving the ACC altogether in public forums. FSU president Rick McCullough cited projections showing that FSU will fall behind its peers in the Big Ten and SEC by as much as $30 million per year by the end of those leagues’ current media deals. The new success initiatives from the ACC — tied to new revenue brought in because of its westward expansion — will bring in additional, significant money for athletic departments that achieve football success, particularly in the College Football Playoff.

Both the Big Ten and SEC are expanding next summer, with the Big Ten adding USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington to balloon to 18 members and the SEC adding Oklahoma and Texas to get to 16. Because of the ACC’s grant of rights, industry sources have described schools like FSU, Clemson and UNC as “unavailable” during the latest conference realignment frenzy. And while all three have had lawyers examine the document and see what their options are, none have challenged it yet and tried to get out of the ACC.

Alford said his relationships within the ACC and with commissioner Jim Phillips remain “great” and that his peers understand he is always going to push for Florida State’s best interests openly and candidly. And that’s why, all offseason, he believed he needed to push his peers to explore uneven revenue models.

“Each institution in the conference has different priorities,” Alford said. “What’s Florida State’s priority? It’s to win championships and compete nationally across the board. How do I provide resources and make sure that we’re providing those opportunities to our student-athletes? I need resources.”

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