2/24/2023 football Edit

Michael Alford outlines argument for unequal ACC revenue sharing

Bob Ferrante • TheOsceola

Editor

Florida State athletics director Michael Alford has made a frequent statement: Florida State’s brand is strong.

On Friday, he outlined an aggressive case to the school’s Board of Trustees for unequal revenue sharing in the ACC as he looks to keep the Seminoles viable in not just football but all 20 sports on the national stage.

Alford showed the BOT members a chart with FSU’s average regular season football viewership from 2014-22 (not including the ACC Network), which showed 3.17 million for the Seminoles as well as 3.08 million for Clemson. There is a dramatic drop-off to Miami (2.04 million) and Louisville (2.02 million) all the way to just over 1 million viewers for Duke.

“We (FSU) represent 15 percent of the ACC's media agreement but we only received 7 percent of the distribution,” Alford said.

Currently, the league's schools equally split distribution from the ACC.

FSU went 10-3 in 2022 in coach Mike Norvell's third season. Fans made trips to Doak Campbell Stadium and also traveled to see the Seminoles in New Orleans and elsewhere. Alford said the FSU-LSU game drew 7.6 million viewers, making it ABC's third-most viewed Sunday night college football game on record. He said the FSU-Florida game drew nearly 7 million viewers.

TV networks look to have as many games with 4 million or more viewers. And from 2014-22, Alford said the Seminoles played in 17 games that reached or surpassed that benchmark.

Alford showed a few more graphics, discussing the TV contract numbers for various conferences as well as when contracts can be renegotiated. He outlined distribution on a per-school basis of $80 million to Big Ten schools and $72 million to SEC schools.

"Each autonomous five conference gets to go to the open market before our deal is even up — some of them a couple of times," Alford said, referencing other Power 5 conferences in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12. "... Right now when you throw everything in, we receive about $42 million. And that’s $30 million every year (disparity) in these contracts until 2036. And remember some of them will go to market again. So that number is even going to get larger."

Alford said he has had frequent conversations with president Richard McCullough, BOT chairman Peter Collins and school attorney Carolyn Egan about the finances of FSU athletics.

"At the end of the day, if something is not done, we cannot be $30 million behind every year compared to our peers ... For Florida State to compete nationally, something has to change moving forward,” Alford said.

FSU and all of the ACC’s schools signed over their media rights to the conference as part of a Grant of Rights (GOR), which is through 2036. The document between ESPN and the ACC remains out of the public view, and to the media in public records requests.

Alford did acknowledge that he and FSU administrators are working with the conference.

"We're talking to them about how we re create a revenue distribution model that takes in factors of who you are, how you produce, how you play, what your brand is," Alford said.

One way to look in to the ESPN-ACC contract is by adding a school to the mix. Notre Dame is a league member in all sports but football, although it plays a set number of ACC teams each fall. Were Notre Dame to join the league as a full member, it would theoretically escalate the per-school distribution as part of a look-in to the TV deal. In past years, schools like West Virginia have also been debated in stories by national media outlets.

A BOT member asked Alford if a "buyout was even feasible," Egan responded, "That is an excellent 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 annual operating budget of the ACC."

Alford then said, "Using today's numbers it would be roughly $120 million."

The BOT member followed up and asked, hypothetically, if FSU earning an additional $30 million from another league would allow the school to break even in four years. Alford succinctly responded, "Hypothetically."

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips has made revenue generation and new revenue streams a priority as part of the league's efforts to bridge part of the revenue gap.

Notes from Alford

The Bowden Society has $10.2 million pledges with about $15.1 million payments. Alford praised Seminole Boosters president/CEO Stephen Ponder and the staff for their efforts.

Alford said FSU the annual fund, what he often calls the "lifeblood of FSU's athletics," is 80 percent to the goal revenue and 59 percent to the membership goal.

FSU AD Michael Alford shared a graphic on TV viewership from 2014-22 to the BOT on Friday.