Journalism (old article)

PUBLISHED ON WARCHANT ON 8/1/2000

Journalism School By Dynasty Nole Date: 8/1/2000 Florida State now has a medical school but what about a journalism school? There was such a school at one time but it was eliminated because UF already had a journalism school. Perhaps it's time FSU got their school back.

College of Journalism and Mass Communications? Recently Jeb Bush signed into law the new Florida State University Medical School. This is the first new medical school to open in the United States in over 20 years. This is the academic equivalent to winning a handful of national championships, and I might add, LONG overdue.

The last 10-15 years have been the best Florida State University has seen academically. The first capital campaign began the greatest increases our endowment has ever seen. The National Magnetic Lab was established, Dr. Robert Holton patented the artificial synthesis of Taxol, the current entering freshman class averages close to a 3.8 GPA and 1200 SAT, and it seems like it has only begun. Loyal Florida State University supporters might ask what is next on the board to continue the academic improvement of our university. A tough question indeed.

The university needs improvement in it's endowment, additional academic offerings, better support of current programs, increased scholarships, investments in technology, and many other areas. Recently though, many FSU supporters have called for the creation of a School of Journalism. The irony in this is that many decades ago, FSU did have a School of Journalism.

In 1949, the Florida State School of Journalism was established. Roughly a decade later the Board of Controls (now the Board of Regents) decided to eliminate the school. The reasons for this are sketchy at best and not well documented. The official reason was to eliminate "duplication" (at the time UF also had a School of Journalism). When was the last college eliminated at UF?

Possibly, with the growing support from FSU alumni/supporters and today's information driven society, the time is ripe for the reestablishment of a School of Journalism. FSU has a successful College of Communications that could feasibly incorporate a Journalism degree to form the FSU College of Journalism and Mass Communication. FSU has a wide assortment of degrees and programs that would benefit from this addition and complete the education experience for Seminole students.

Ultimately, the addition of Journalism to the Florida State curriculum would require an extensive effort from Florida State, its alumni and supporters. First a concerted effort by Florida State is needed. One where the desire for the creation of this School is agreed upon, as well as its direction. Secondly, FSU alumni/supporters must back this School, and lastly, but not least, the State Legislature and Board of Regents would need to reverse their position and allow FSU to reopen it's School of Journalism.

Today FSU is on the verge of matching the success of football team in the academic arena. Remember how the football team entered the big time in football 10-15 years ago? The same thing is happening in the classroom. But the current momentum must be continued and in some cases increased to reach our ultimate goal.

The Tallahassee Democrat wrote on this subject back in 1973 calling for the reinstatement of the FSU School of Journalism. An Opportunity for FSU.

Recruiting stars, etc (stars matter)

What percent of 5-stars go pro?
• 58%

What percent of 3-stars go pro?
• 7%

Always some individuals that are exceptions to the rule. But the rankings are more right than wrong.

Especially in aggregate over a 5-year span. https://t.co/6TLLqorw5d

— Pick Six Previews (@PickSixPreviews) December 23, 2018

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/players-leaving.247701/page-2

I tried to explain with facts in this thread

https://floridastate.forums.rivals....es-favorably-to-the-past.246447/#post-4167814

People keep saying that we had a lot of 3 star recruits in these classes on the national championship team, I argued hardly any of them played.

Winston 5 star
Freeman 4 star
Karlos williams 5 star
O leary - 4 star
Jernigan 4 star
Telvin smith - 4 star
Benjamn and greene -4 star
Darby - 4 star
Goldman - 5 star
Joyner - 5 star
Nls and Derrick mitchell -4 star
Ramsey - 4 star

In 2012, watson was the only 3 star who did anything besides the kicker. That kicker was as high as he could be rated as a kicker though.

In 2011 out of 13 3 stars, only 3 really did anything but none were even close to top players on the team.
Sure jernigan, freeman and many other 4 stars lead the way from 2011.

 

62 whitworth15, Yesterday at 4:39 PM

Winston 5 star
Freeman 4 star
Karlos williams 5 star
O leary - 4 star
Jernigan 4 star
Telvin smith - 4 star
Benjanin and greene -4 star
Darby - 4 star
Goldman - 5 star
Joyner - 5 star
Nls and Derrick mitchell -4 star
Ramsey - 4 star

 

23 whitworth15, Dec 20, 2018 

Last edited: Dec 20, 2018

FSU Research review

FSU holding ground.  Have been for a while with research.  My best guess is, that is all FSU can hope for given limited mission med school and anchored (FAMU) engineering school.

https://news.fsu.edu/news/university-news/2018/12/21/fsu-researchers-push-creative-scientific-accomplishments-in-2018/

Patenting New TechFSU is ranked 79th in the world for the number of patents granted in 2017, according to a report from the National Academy of Inventors and the Intellectual Property Owners Association released in June. The annual report is compiled from data from the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office and reflects the cutting-edge research pursued at Florida State and other universities worldwide. The university produced 34 patented technologies.

MagLab RenewalThe National Science Foundation granted FSU $184 million over the next five years to keep the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at the university. This is a nearly 10 percent increase in funding over the previous five-year period and brings the agency’s total MagLab investment to $867 million.

FSU Faculty Awarded $226 Million in Research DollarsFlorida State University researchers brought in more than $226 million in the 2018 fiscal year from federal, state and private sources to support investigations into areas such as nuclear science, climate change, the effect of deep space travel on human health and much more. This is a $16 million increase over the prior fiscal year and the second highest amount FSU researchers have ever received in a single year. The university has received more than $1 billion over five years.

New Associate Vice President for ResearchFlorida State University Vice President for Research Gary K. Ostrander has named an accomplished scholar of Latin and Greek poetry and ancient emotion as the new associate vice president for Research. FSU Professor of Classics Laurel Fulkerson will replace Associate Vice President for Research Ross Ellington, who is retiring after 38 years at the university.

FSU football & attendance

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/the-last-ten-years-of-home-attendance.247455/

Average per game

2008 - 77,968
2009 - 74,345
2010 - 71,270
2011 - 77,842
2012 - 75,601
2013 - 75,421
2014 - 82,497
2015 - 73,219
2016 - 76,800
2017 - 70,943
2018 - 68,288

http://nolefan.org/summary/

Renewals and season ticket sales were down this year surprisingly with UF, Clemson and Va Tech on 7 game schedule. What makes that especially surprising is those numbers are largely determined well before we lost the first game.
Be careful with interpreting the numbers as some of that loss is in non-revenue generating seats. Back when we were reporting 78,000 that included as many as 8,000 more students in attendance who don't "buy" seats. FSU receives student activity fees whether 16,000 come to the game or 6,0000 come. Those high attendance seasons also include as many as 5,000 endzone seats that were either given to, or sold to, groups at 50 percent or more discounts. That same space is occupied by Champions Club today, which is generating millions of dollars more in revenue with fewer people in the house.
How much is the loss in dollars?
Let's presume we lost 3,000 season tickets. At an average of $330 per season ticket that is $1 million in ticket revenue and another (on average) $1.3 million in per seat contribution to Seminole Boosters so a total impact of $2.3 million impact on athletics. I think $2.3 to $3.5 million a year is a realistic loss.
That's real money. We can talk about potential ACC Network money but this is real money we as the admin and the fans can do something about.
Here's some candid observations:
Based on a good schedule and 60,000 at spring game, you would have thought our sales and renewals would have been better.
I understand attendance and single game sales falling after the losses but the hay is in the barn well before the first loss.
Let's break the problem down into component pieces:
1. There's a trend across football, pro and college, for lower attendance at live events. (yes even in the SEC). Its a real threat in our SWOT analysis.
2. Student attendance is down.
3. Visiting team attendance is down. UF used to buy 10,000 through the UF ticket office which filled those endzone seats but this year they only bought about 7,000 leaving a lot of empty seats. Instead, the gator fans bought sideline seats from FSU fans on Stubhub. Clemson same thing.
4. The market has changed. It used to be people loved sitting in the same sections with friends, watching each others kids grow up. But to "some extent" that has changed. Some people don't care about the "community" around them and will now just go to Stubhub for the few games they want to attend. FSU and other college and pro teams have to adapt and are going to a variable pricing model.
5. FSU is spending as much on marketing and sales as ever before but not getting the same results, just like lot of other pro and college teams. The answer to the problems at FSU are the same as in every other stadium.

• We need to win.
• We need to create better fan experiences whether that's better use of music, scoreboards, wider seating, better concessions, beer,
• We need more attractive Doak opponents...
• We need better pricing models.
• We need to consider all options because this stuff is real and is major threat.

 

Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690

15 Jerry Kutz, Friday at 10:06 PM

ACC"s network? Not really

Alabama violates NCAA policy and suspends three players (including a starter), LSU has two players murder somebody... but ***Dexter Lawrence had 0.02% ostarine levels!!!*** https://t.co/o1fdharoWZ

— Zachary Branham (@zacharybranham4) December 28, 2018

ACC football officiating

Again, the conference that wants FSU to bring in the money also wants to anchor FSU football.

Illogical.

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/acc-holding-penalties-holding-fsu-back.246812/

During the Boston College game, the officials picked up a holding penalty which raised some eyebrows.

​

It’s not like ACC officiating has a good reputation. Heck there’s even an academic study published by former poster Brickhouse (can’t tag):
https://floridastate.rivals.com/news/study-shines-light-on-officiating-bias-in-acc-other-conferences

There was also some stats floating around that the ACC never calls holding on teams playing against FSU.

I took a look (data-nerd-out in a spoiler at the bottom, TL/DL my numbers aren't perfect) and there seems to be a bias with holding calls against FSU, Pitt, & NC State while UNC benefits the most in the conference. This doesn't include special teams plays.

This is a graph of the total holding calls benefiting the team's defense minus the holding calls against their offense in ACC games. The table below is where the numbers come from. Make whatever conclusions you want, but I think there's a pattern here.

​

​

Bonus:

• UNC only gets one holding call against them per season during ACC play since 2014. Seems a bit like a quota to me
• NC State is on par with FSU for being screwed over by holding calls. My tinfoil hat theory is that they are odd-program-out from the Tobacco Road schools. Pitt also may take the crown. Shame on them for playing in a division with UNC and Duke.
• The ACC tried their best to stop Pitt from going to the championship game with 12 holding calls against them. Sweet baby Jameis
• @ACCRefsSuck is no more?!
• I also looked at holding calls per play since, ostensibly, the more offensive plays you run then the more likely you'd get called for holding, but the same patterns emerged.
• Can you tell that the ACC really wanted to get Wake Forest bowl eligible this year?

ACC & FSU TV Ratings

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/

https://csnbbs.com/thread-866248.html

Ratings for Individual ACC Teams 2013-2018 

I decided to break this down into three categories - regular season conference games, out-of-conference and ACCCG games together as one category, and then overall. In each category it does not include ESPNU games, similar to the conference ratings I just recently posted but does include Mirror Games (like the previous post) giving half of the viewers to each game.

Regular Season Conference Games Average Number of Viewers:

Florida State - 3.091 million viewers (43 games)
Clemson - 3.004 million viewers (39 games)
Louisville - 2.486 million viewers (23 games)
Miami - 2.316 million viewers (35 games)
Pittsburgh - 2.160 million viewers (12 games)
Virginia Tech - 2.021 million viewers (23 games)
Syracuse - 2.016 million viewers (16 games)
North Carolina State - 1.970 million viewers (17 games)
Virginia - 1.938 million viewers (10 games)
Georgia Tech - 1.652 million viewers (20 games)
Boston College - 1.508 million viewers (16 games)
North Carolina - 1.450 million viewers (19 games)
Wake Forest - 1.185 million viewers (18 games)
Duke - 1.103 million viewers (16 games)

OOC Games or ACCCG Games Average Number of Viewers:

Florida State - 5.387 million viewers (17 games)
Virginia Tech - 4.757 million viewers (10 games)
Clemson - 4.261 million viewers (19 games)
Duke - 4.144 million viewers (2 games)
Georgia Tech - 4.202 million viewers (6 games)
North Carolina - 3.633 million viewers (6 games)
Miami - 3.337 million viewers (11 games)
Pittsburgh - 2.888 million viewers (9 games)
North Carolina State - 2.635 million viewers (3 games)
Syracuse - 2.576 million viewers (6 games)
Louisville - 2.530 million viewers (6 games)
Virginia - 2.498 million viewers (6 games)
Boston College - 2.456 million viewers (4 games)
Wake Forest - 2.095 million viewers (3 games)

Overall Average Number of Viewers:

Florida State - 3.742 million viewers (60 games)
Clemson - 3.416 million viewers (58 games)
Virginia Tech - 2.850 million viewers (33 games)
Miami - 2.560 million viewers (46 games)
Louisville - 2.495 million viewers (29 games)
Pittsburgh - 2.472 million viewers (21 games)
Georgia Tech - 2.240 million viewers (26 games)
Syracuse - 2.168 million viewers (22 games)
Virginia - 2.148 million viewers (16 games)
North Carolina State - 2.070 million viewers (20 games)
North Carolina - 1.974 million viewers (25 games)
Boston College - 1.698 million viewers (20 games)
Duke - 1.441 million viewers (18 games)
Wake Forest - 1.314 million viewers (21 games)

https://csnbbs.com/thread-866195.html

ACC Football Viewership Stats 2013-2018 

ACC Conference Games by year
(excluding games aired on ESPNU and FS2, of which there are none for the ACC in the latter case but could be for another conference when I do that comparison next month)

2018 - 32 games; 54.893 million viewers; 1.715 million per game
2017 - 30 games; 69.252 million viewers; 2.308 million per game
2016 - 31 games; 75.791 million viewers; 2.445 million per game
2015 - 23 games; 54.876 million viewers; 2.386 million per game
2014 - 24 games; 68.836 million viewers; 2.868 million per game
2013 - 24 games; 61.714 million viewers; 2.572 million per game

ACC TV Contract Games
(Includes all conference games above plus out-of-conference games either at home or at a neutral site which made determining which conference technically owned the rights an educated guess on my part)


2018 - 41 games; 83.014 million viewers; 2.025 million per game
2017 - 41 games; 112.716 million viewers; 2.749 million per game
2016 - 40 games; 112.333 million viewers; 2.808 million per game
2015 - 34 games; 100.141 million viewers; 2.945 million per game
2014 - 33 games; 103.039 million viewers; 3.122 million per game
2013 - 31 games; 89.754 million viewers; 2.895 million per game


ALL games involving at least ACC team shown on CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, ESPN, ESPN2, FS1

2018 - 49 games; 98.501 million viewers; 2.010 million per game
2017 - 50 games; 132.868 million viewers; 2.656 million per game
2016 - 49 games; 133.308 million viewers; 2.721 million per game
2015 - 44 games; 122.479 million viewers; 2.784 million per game
2014 - 45 games; 128.688 million viewers; 2.860 million per game
2013 - 36 games; 102.206 million viewers; 2.839 million per game

https://csnbbs.com/thread-866743.html

Next on the ratings threads, I decided to look at the ND-ACC scheduling alliance results. Since the actual alliance didn't start until 2014 this is only for 2014-2018 unlike the other ratings thread that were from 2013-2018. There are 25 games in total which makes sense since the agreement is for 5 games a year although 2014 had only 4 games to start so the following year 2015 had 6 games. The missing year 2013 only had one ACC team on the schedule which was Pitt.

2014 - ND vs FSU - 13.250 ABC
2015 - ND vs Clem - 7.647 ABC
2017 - ND vs Miami - 6.727 ABC
2015 - ND vs UVA - 5.744 ABC
2018 - ND vs VT - 4.473 ABC
2014 - ND vs SU - 4.05 ABC
2015 - ND vs Pitt - 3.844 ABC
2016 - ND vs NCST - 3.720 ABC
2015 - GT vs ND - 3.700 NBC
2014 - UNC vs ND - 3.190 NBC
2018 - FSU vs ND - 3.173 NBC
2014 - UL vs ND - 3.090 NBC
2018 - SU vs ND - 2.873 NBC
2018 - Pitt vs ND - 2.849 NBC
2016 - Miami vs ND - 2.634 NBC
2016 - Duke vs ND - 2.627 NBC
2017 - NCST vs ND - 2.625 NBC
2017 - ND vs UNC - 2.510 ABC
2016 - VT vs ND - 2.449 NBC
2018 - ND vs Wake - 2.439 ABC
2016 - ND vs SU - 2.104 ESPN
2015 - BC vs ND - 1.986 NBCSN
2015 - Wake vs ND - 1.942 NBC
2017 - Wake vs ND - 1.903 NBC
2017 - ND vs BC - 1.850 ESPN

25 games - 93.399 million viewers total - 3.736 average

FSU football ticket prices going up and FSU athletic economics

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/2019-football-season-ticket-packet.245656/page-2#post-4148588

No. If the price of the season ticket is now $380 you will pay $1520 for the four season tickets plus the same minimum donation requirement for those seats in section 33, so its a relatively minor price increase to help us fund the budget.
Your donation requirement in that section was $500 per seat or $2000 for the four seats and that hasn't changed.

Stadiums around the country are trying to price location to market in order to sell all their seats. When you look at our stubhub sales you will see our market is like many, where some seats are in very high demand and others are not.

In order to fill Doak we'd like to be able to price the lower demand seats closer to market, which means lowering the price to as low as $199 with a minimum Booster contribution. Last year, there was very little difference between our lowest and highest demand sections, so this adjustment corrects that and maybe allows a family of four to be able to attend a home game.

The policy also slightly increases the price of the highest demand season tickets which generates additional revenue for the athletics budget.

Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690

15 Jerry Kutz, Yesterday at 10:18 AM

Last edited: Yesterday at 10:32 AM

Ken,
What he is posting about is the communication to those people who will be affected.
Have you received your renewal notice, which recently were mailed?

As you noted, the previous change two years ago was to go to a variable per seat minimum contribution requirement by section. Rather than just priority 1 and priority 2, we now have a more graduated scale based on how many seats you buy. That has not changed.

This change is to the actual price of a season ticket in the highest and lowest demand sections to bring the price closer to market.

While we are increasing the highest demand seats slightly, we are also lowering the price of the lowest demand seats in an effort to price them to market and sell out Doak. We want to price sections in Doak to where a family of four can afford to attend the live event.

The goal is to fund athletics while still keeping attending a live event affordable to our market.

Call or email me if you have questions or post them here for others to see.

Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690

19 Jerry Kutz, Yesterday at 10:29 AM

The comfort of your actual seat is a function of two measurements: the width of the seat and the distance between your row and the row in front of you.
It is relatively easy to change the width of the seat -- average 17 inches -- by reducing the number of people on a row. I'll get back to that...
But it is impossible to change the distance between rows - 26 inches - without replacing all the seating decks which we hope to do within the next 10 years.
Changing just the width of the seat from 17 to say 20 inches will help but if you are tall, your knees will still be straddling the person in front of you (until such time as we can replace all the plates so there is 30 or more inches between rows).

We are considering doing just the width component in various sections but when you reduce the number of people on a row, it can displace people. Typically, when a stadium does something major like this, they have to do a total stadium re-seat which would be disruptive to some of our season ticket holders. I think our fans would be okay with a reseat if it was accompanied by a truly more comfortable experience. We are testing it but were not 100 percent sure our fans would perceive "a more comfortable experience" with just a wider seat. We're not sure we can achieve that until we can also increase the distance between the rows from 26-30 inches, which will require a major renovation of Doak (in the $250 million range) to do it right.

We have preliminary design done.

Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690

51 Jerry Kutz, 48 minutes ago

I'm just fretting about money - football floats the boat.

My revenue estimates are guesses but if you compare cumulative attendance in 2014-15 to 2018-19 and assume $50 a ticket FSU received $4.9M less ticket revenue. But of course that's squiffy math and does not take into account booster donations and student tickets.

I wish I had a fix.

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/fsu-mens-soccer.245016/page-2

It is both a Title 1X issue and a budget issue.

Title IX does relate with your male/female student population. We male's have always appreciated the fact that FSU has a lot more females than males but when it comes to collegiate competition, having more women than men is not a good thing for men (but I am not complaining).

To work toward compliance, FSU needed to add more opportunities for women or drop a men's sport to balance the equation. We added sand volleyball which helped.
If we added a men's sport, whether soccer or LAX, it would throw the equation further out of whack so I don't see us adding any men's sports before women's sports. And for that reason, I don't see us adding a women's sport any time soon.

Plus, there is the matter of revenue necessary to fund those sports which generate no revenue. Whatever you add will make it that much tougher to balance the budget which would have a debilitating effect on the existing 20 sports including football.

Clemson dropped four sports a couple years ago (men's and women's swimming and diving) so they could fund their remaining 16 sports at a higher level, especially football. They added women's softball this year to be up to 17 sports compared to FSU with 20 sports.

I agree men's soccer and men's lacrosse are very popular sports and growing in popularity faster than football. We could one day find soccer and LAX are revenue generating sports (see Atlanta professional soccer) but not yet.

We have both sports at FSU on a club level and they are very competitive against the colleges with whom they compete.

 

Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690

41 Jerry Kutz, Tuesday at 4:30 PM 

Last edited: Tuesday at 4:37 PM

https://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/i-have-an-honest-question-regarding-fsu%E2%80%99s-financial-situation.243995/page-2

As for the fledgling ACC Network
I don't think any of us know enough about that to comment accurately in terms of how much it will generate. I do believe even if its $5 million a year, its a windfall and can grow so I'm all for it.

What I would venture to say is that the ACC Network revenue will be the same for FSU whether we are great in a sport or not. The reason I say that is the Network will fill the air whether with us or with an ACC team that is winning and attractive (think current TV and NCAA revenue distribution which is equal for all teams regardless of record) so I don't think that is driving our thought process currently. Our biggest opportunity for additional revenue from basketball will still be home attendance and that will be driven by fan experience as much as team performance.

Couple of points I'd like to clarify.
First, university endowments have little to do with athletics at most public universities. When a donor donates money to an endowment, it is typically earmarked for a department and can only be spent to benefit that department. A gift to nursing can only be used for nursing. A gift to athletics, can only be used for athletics. Furthermore, a gift to soccer, can only be used for soccer.
The FSU Athletics Scholarship Endowment, started in 1985, is growing and is currently at about $70 million. Forget about the $700 million in the university endowment. All that counts is the $70 mil for athletics. I believe the same is true at most public universities so the fact UF has $1.6 Billion doesn't affect their athletics program directly either.
If the $70 million scholarship endowment earns 5 percent annually, that is $3.5 million of earnings that can be used to fund a part of the $11 million annual cost of scholarships.
BTW... very few athletic departments have fully funded scholarship endowments. That is a misnomer. I don't have the numbers in front of me but it is not the norm.

Some schools had major gifts to build facilities -- like a Ben Hill Griffin Stadium or Williams Brice Stadium -- so they have less debt on those facilities than Seminole Boosters has to pay on all the facilities we've built with debt since the 1990s. We carry about $10 million in debt service we have to pay each year to pay the bond issues on Doak expansion since the 1990s, Howser, softball/soccer, track etc. Most athletic departments (or direct support organizations like Seminole Boosters) are carrying debt with donor pledges against that debt but maybe not quite as much as FSU.

Second, USA Today reports the NCAA's financial data each year which showed FSU was ranked 8th in spending last year and 14th in revenue generated by athletics and athletic contributions (Seminole Boosters) so when people say "we don't have money", I ask compared to who?

Our budget was over $110 million which was larger than any other ACC school. There were only seven schools in the nation whose athletic budget was greater than FSU and some of those schools have 25 to 30 sports compared to our 20 sports.

While we don't generate the level of money as 13 other schools, like Texas and Texas AM and Florida, we generate more than most every opponent we play.

While I agree with JMGNole that we are relatively young in terms of endowments and the funding of facilities, I would add the following current sources of income:
1. The ACC Network currently generates $15 million less per team, per year than SEC, BIG, Big12 and Pac12 teams receive from their network contracts. Hopefully when the ACC network fully launches this August, it will close the gap. If only by $5 million, it would help. But remember, in spite of the huge difference in network revenues, FSU was still 8th in spending last year and 14th in revenues which is pretty amazing when you think about it.
2. Population, or lack thereof, within 150 miles of the FSU campus has a very detrimental effect on revenue. I've written it ad nauseum but FSU has less than 1 million people within a 150 miles compared to 8-10 million the same distance from cowtowns like Gainesville, Auburn or Clemson. I haven't found a 70,000 seat stadium, east of the Mississippi River, with less than FSU. Heck, other than maybe Penn State, I can't find anyone with less than 5 million. And that has a very detrimental effect on all ticket sales, contributions associated with ticket sales, corporate spending, etc. I am talking about $5 to 10 million a year type of affect.
In the SWOT analysis location is one of, if not the, greatest weakness. We are way more vulnerable to downturns in season ticket sales, time of kickoff or midweek tip, with 1 million people around us, than are other schools who have 8-10 million people who can drive in and out on gameday.

YET, in spite of 1. and 2. above, FSU was still 14th in revenue generated and 8th in spending so keep that in perspective.

We ain't broke and we're funding our teams at levels where they are winning national championships and finishing in the top 10 in the Directors Cup. The one sport that has unfortunately struggled the past few years, football, has a larger budget than most anyone they play and the No. 2 recruiting budget in the nation.

 

Jerry Kutz is Sr. Vice President of Seminole Boosters in charge of special projects including the $250 million Champions Campaign for FSU Athletics, renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium including the Champions Club. email: jkutz@fsu.edu Cell: (850) 508-8690

12 Jerry Kutz, Dec 2, 2018 

Last edited: Dec 2, 2018

Will the ACCN save the ACC's financial future?

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2018/08/06/Colleges/ACC-Network-main-story.aspx

The ACC has pinned its financial future on revenue it expects to generate from a conference-branded linear network. But before it realizes any income from the ACC Network, which will launch a year from now, its schools will spend a whopping $110 million to $120 million of their own money so they are prepared to produce live events and other programming.

That’s four times what SEC schools spent to get ready for that conference’s network launch in 2014.

The ramp-up to the ACC Network will be an expensive one, to say the least, with ACC schools budgeting $6 million to $10 million each to buy equipment, build infrastructure and hire staff that will man high-end production studios and cutting-edge control rooms — the bones of a network that will be owned and operated by ESPN.

Neither the conference office nor the schools are disclosing their revenue projections, but some reports have suggested $10 million to $15 million in per-school revenue annually from the network — lofty expectations indeed that would have to be based on full distribution throughout the league’s footprint.

At the same time, Swofford is insisting the actual projections are much more conservative. He’s repeatedly told the schools that another launch like the SEC Network’s in 2014 isn’t likely. The SEC Network hit the airwaves with 60 million subscribers, the most successful cable launch in history, ESPN said, resulting in $7.5 million in new revenue, per school, in year one.

Conference-by-conference revenue

For the 2016-17 fiscal year. Parentheses show number of schools in each conference.

Per-school avg.*

Total revenue

SEC (14)

$41m

$650m

Big Ten (14)**

$37m

$513m

Pac-12 (12)

$31m

$509m

ACC (15)

$27m

$418m

Big 12 (10)^

$34m

$371m

Note: The Big Ten’s new TV deals with Fox and ESPN started in 2017-18 when per-school revenue jumped to more than $50 million. Conference tax returns for this past year will be available in 2019.
* Average among schools receiving full share. Some disparities exist in the way conferences calculate shares.
** Newer members Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers don’t receive full shares yet.
^ Doesn’t include some third-tier TV revenue kept by the schools. Revenue from the Longhorn Network, for example, is not part of the conference distribution.

Source: Conference tax returns, USA Today Get the data Created with Datawrapper