It’s not always sunshine and rainbows for Florida Gator fans, but it at least isn’t always grey clouds and raining. Basketball is coming off a national title, football has the hope of a new era with Jon Sumrall, and baseball and softball have continued to make consistent trips to their respective College World Series.
Meanwhile, down the road in Tallahassee, there isn’t much to cheer about these days, and to add to the problems at FSU, a new report just came out hinting that Florida’s neighbors to the west might be borderline broke.
FSU takes on a ton of debt
Sportico dropped a report yesterday that indicated FSU has $437 million in debt related to athletics. That’s a $200 million increase from the year before, and the athletic debt makes up 71% of the total debt Florida State University has as an institution.
A big reason for the increase is that FSU did renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium and a new football operations center. Sportico’s report indicated that FSU is using revenue bonds to fund the projects and help offset the debt in the meantime.
But let’s be real here, even if the $437 million is a bit of an accounting trick, it’s not like FSU is flush with cash or will be anytime soon. There is a reason why the Seminoles have been desperate to get out of the ACC. Even at 4-8, the Gators get to play on ABC while FSU is relegated to the CW. Florida gets to play on Saturdays while FSU keeps getting put on Friday nights.
After renovations, FSU reduced the capacity of Doak Campbell Stadium to 67,000, in part because they have struggled to get consistent attendence to Tallahassee. Florida, meanwhile, gets 93,000 to show up during a 4-8 season to watch the Gators play LIU, and Florida fans aren’t happy about the potential for reductions in The Swamp.
Throw in the fact that FSU now has more athletics-related debt than anyone in all of college football, and it makes their desired escape from the ACC all that much more difficult due to the massive exit fee they would need to pay. So even if FSU got a lifeline to come to the SEC, they would be so broke that they would have zero chance of keeping up financially for the first decade in the league.
There is a reason why Mike Norvell still has a job.
FSU literally can’t afford to fire him.