href="http://floridastate.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=1061&CID=1348429">Eric

Barron recently told Warchant.com that they must find a way to improve the

facility. Without having specific estimates to look at - and I'm not sure

they have even been done yet - the cost will be in the millions to upgrade the Civic Center to the level needed to become competitive with the rest of the conference.

"There's going to be a lot of things going in down there like the seats have to be replaced, the place needs to be cleaned up and painted, and the locker rooms need to be redone and we need to do some tradition areas," explained Seminole Boosters CEO Andy Miller. "It's clear to me that we have to dress up the Civic Center."

There are similar demands facing the Doak Campbell Stadium. Miller said that the football stadium is in need of both maintenance and upgrades including at least one major project.

"Somehow we've got to figure out how to put the financing together to repaint the stadium," said Miller. "That's just a big expense and nothing is going to come in (revenue) from that project."

There are some plans in the works like a new athletic dorm that are expected to generate additional income. However, it will take several new successful ventures to put a serious dent on the athletic department's balance sheet.

"I'm confident we've got enough good revenue ideas," said Miller. "There's not one $3 million idea but its 10 or 15 that will make you $200,000 a year (each). That and the investment we are talking about will get us in a lot better shape."

While cutting costs and new revenue generating initiatives is a step in the right direction, it's avoiding the elephant in the room - FSU's share of television revenue within the ACC.

"The other big issue is conference distribution," noted Miller. "The ACC, when I started, they paid more than anybody else. Now, it's significantly different than some of the people we compete against."

Each school in the ACC receives approximately $12.9 million share per year

from the league's television contract with ABC/ESPN. The Sports Business Journal recently reported that the addition of Syracuse and Pittsburgh will result in a new television contract that could generate an additional $1 to $2 million annually to each conference member. That will certainly help put a dent in the revenue disparity between the ACC and the other major athletic

conferences. Nevertheless, FSU's cut of television revenue will still be far short of what schools in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 receive.

The ACC is locked into its current television until 2023 (probably longer when the new contract with Syracuse and Pittsburgh gets done) and you can bet that expenses

aren't going decrease over this time.

According to BusinessofCollegeSports.com, FSU's athletic department has the most expenses of any ACC school by a wide margin. And let's face it, FSU is the most important member when it comes to the ACC's current $1.86 billion television deal. Nevertheless, ACC Commissioner John Swofford calls equal revenue sharing among league members "sacred". That's not a surprising stance from the ACC Commissioner considering that most league members don't have near the expenses that Florida State has nor do they generate the same level of income for the

conference. Great deal for most of the ACC but bad for Florida State.

With all these issues hanging over the athletic offices, Florida State's administration will have some difficult issues to grapple with over the next few months. Will certain sports programs have to be dropped in order to get the budget back on track? Where will the financing come from to take care of much needed projects like updating the Civic Center and Doak Campbell Stadium? What moves can be made to create new revenue streams for athletics?

It all comes down to whether FSU wants to continue to play on the big kids playground. Unless FSU can pull a cost-cutting miracle out of its hat, it will become increasingly difficult for football, and all sports programs, to compete at an elite level. The only way to achieve that goal will be to dramatically increase revenue and, absent a football national championship or two, the most obvious way to do that is by getting a larger share of a television contract.

Considering that Swofford is adamantly opposed to anything other than equal

distribution within the conference, it may be time for FSU to look elsewhere. While rumors of the

href="http://floridastate.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=1078&tid=154999171&mid=154999171&sid=1061&style=2">Big 12 looking at FSU as part of an expansion plan appear to be bogus, that won't stop FSU from actively seeking out the Big 12 and the SEC to gauge their interest. As evidenced by bowl television ratings, Florida State is still a

very hot product and you would expect that a major conference would be interested in adding that product to its inventory. Negotiations with other conferences would also give FSU some leverage for a higher revenue share within the ACC.

If FSU chooses to stand pat and hitch its wagon to the ACC in the long term, it's unlikely that the current budget crisis in the athletic department will improve much. If that holds true, it's just a matter of time before those financial struggles translate into fewer wins for football and FSU's other

sports programs.