If we’ve learned anything over the last several weeks, it’s this:
Money matters in college athletics.
But I’m here to tell you today that it doesn’t matter quite as much as college football administrators and conference commissioners would have you believe.
Case in point:
No. 8-ranked FSU 45, No. 5-ranked LSU 24.
That’s right, the poor, impoverished ACC team dominated the fat-cat team from the SEC.
If you’re scoring at home, the Seminoles are now 9-0-2 all-time in Orlando and have beaten LSU in back-to-back seasons even though the Tigers’ athletic department brought in about $200 million last year while FSU’s athletic department brought in about $160 million — or nearly $40 million less.
On a scintillating Sunday night at Camping World Stadium, the Seminoles sure didn’t didn’t look like they were the disgruntled and self-perceived poverty-stricken ACC team whose administrators have been whining that they can’t financially compete with the big, bad SEC.
Breaking news: Athletic budgets, TV contracts and grant-of-rights agreements had nothing to do with the outcome of this game — and most other games, for that matter.
The Seminoles won because quarterback Jordan Travis wouldn’t allow them to lose and looked absolutely Heismanesque in completing 23 of 31 for 342 yards and four touchdowns. They won because transfer wide receiver Keon Coleman (thank you, Michigan State) was unguardable with 9 catches for 122 yards and three touchdowns. They won because the defense set the tone in the first half by rising up twice on fourth down deep in their own territory and stopping LSU in its tracks.
So much for LSU coach Brian Kelly saying on his radio show this week, “We’re going to beat the heck out of Florida State.”
Instead, coach Mike Norvell — aka “The Tiger King” — and his Seminoles beat the bejabbers out of team some have predicted will oust Alabama from its perch atop the SEC West.
What a dominant performance it was for FSU and what a spectacle and showcase it was for the City of Orlando!
“An unbelievable, electric atmosphere,” Norvell said of the packed house of 65,249 mostly Tiger-topping, tomahawk-chopping fans.
Camping World Stadium has been trying to get $800 million in tourist development tax (TDT) money for renovations, and Sunday’s nationally televised sellout — “The Showdown at the Campground” — certainly helped the cause. This will likely turn out to be the non-conference college football game of the season and has been a hard sellout for months.
If Florida Citrus Sports — the organization in charge of the two bowl games and other sporting events at Camping World Stadium — could land a neutral college football game of this magnitude every season and get into the rotation for the expanded College Football Playoff, then the TDT investment would be worth it.
However, as it stands, the outdated state of the stadium likely cost Orlando a chance to host such prestigious events as World Cup games, the Army-Navy game and other marquee neutral-site college football games.
Give Florida Citrus Sports credit for landing FSU-LSU, but in the future it will take even more perks and more of a financial commitment to land games of this magnitude. Like it or not, the price of doing business in college football are rising faster than property insurance rates in Sarasota.
That’s why FSU and other Atlantic Coast Conference schools are upset about the television revenue discrepancy between the ACC and the SEC and Big Ten. Thus, the ACC decided to expand on Friday and add Pac-12 leftovers Stanford and Cal along with SMU — an American Athletic Conference school that no other major conference was even considering.
It’s no secret why the ACC added this underwhelming trio; it’s because all three schools were willing to give up all or some of their TV revenue — money that the existing ACC teams will then be able to divide among themselves. In other words, the ACC added three desperate new members just so existing league teams could bleed them dry of their TV revenue.
It’s all part of the belief among college administrators that they need more and more and more money to compete with their rivals. As Florida AD Scott Stricklin told me recently about the mentality in today’s college football, “There’s nothing you won’t spend to get the best players and best people to come to your program.”
But if money is all that matters, then the Gators would beat FSU every single season because, well, the Gators have always had a significantly bigger athletic budget than the Seminoles. If money is all that matters, the Texas Longhorns — traditionally among the top two revenue producers in college athletics — would be competing for national titles most every season. The Longhorns, who have won more than eight games only once in the last nine years, bring in about $35 million more per year than Georgia, which has won back-to-back national titles.
Do athletic programs really need to make $250 million a year in revenue when $200 million or — gasp! — $150 million would suffice? As Bud Fox asked greedy billionaire Gordon Gekko in the classic movie Wall Street: “How much is enough? How many yachts can you water-ski behind?”
Florida State as more than enough money to compete for national championships. In the end, college football is about hiring a good coach, giving him decent resources, having a modicum of patience and letting him recruit and develop talent. That’s what’s the Seminoles did with Norvell, whose recruiting and work in the transfer portal has paid off handsomely. Case in point is Travis, a lightly regarded transfer from Louisville, who signed with FSU after considering offers from FAU, USF and UCF.
Travis is thriving under Norvell and now has the Seminoles poised to make a national-championship run for the first time since the Jimbo-Jameis era.
Of course, there are still many games to be played, but if the Seminoles do end up in the college football playoff this season, it will be because of their coaches and players; not their athletic budget and media-rights deal.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2