Noles News: ACC officials, teams feeling “us versus Florida State” after FSU takes public stand

Recruiting

Is there a hotter team on the recruiting trail than Florida State right now?

FSU followed up a July filled with fireworks by snagging the commitment of five-star safety KJ Bolden — the No. 1 player at his position in the 2024 recruiting class.

Bolden immediately becomes FSU’s highest-ranked pledge in #Tribe24 and if he signs with the Seminoles, he’ll be the most talented incoming safety prospect since Derwin James in 2015. Bolden has the talent to earn reps in the defensive back rotation the minute he sets foot on campus, and may even ascend to a starting role by the end of his freshman campaign, depending on his health and development.

Florida State now has the No. 4 recruiting class in the country according to both the 247Sports Composite Rankings and On3 Industry Rankings and join Georgia and Ohio State as the only teams that have three five-star commits.

Florida State Seminoles football 2024 commitments

QUARTERBACK: 4 star Luke Kromenhoek (GA)

RUNNING BACK: 4 star Kam Davis (GA)

RUNNING BACK: 4 star Micahi Danzy (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Camdon Frier (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Lawayne McCoy (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star BJ Gibson (GA)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Elijah Moore (MD)

TIGHT END: 5 star Landen Thomas (GA)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star Jonathan Daniels (FL)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Tye Hylton (FL)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star Manasse Itete (CA)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Jayden Todd (GA)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star DD Holmes (DC)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Jamorie Flagg (FL)

LINEBACKER: 3 star Jayden Parrish (FL)

LINEBACKER: 3 star Timir Hickman-Collins (SC)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 5 star KJ Bolden (GA)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 5 star Charles Lester III (FL)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 4 star Ricky Knight III (FL)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 3 star CJ Heard (GA)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 3 star Rydarrius “Red” Morgan (AL)

KICKER: 3 star Jake Weinberg (FL)

Football

With realignment having hit a boiling point on Friday with the Pac-12 defections of Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten and Arizona, Arizona State and Utah to the Big 12 (resulting in a current Pac-4 in 2024), most eyes are now squarely on Florida State after the university took a major public stand last Wednesday by speaking out in regards to its financial frustrations with the ACC.

As expected, the rest of the conference isn't feeling too excited about FSU swinging its weight around.

From ESPN’s Andrea Adelson David Hale — bolded parts for emphasis on hilarity:

One ACC administrator thought it was an attempt to “strong arm” presidents to change their minds on revenue distribution. Another questioned whether trustee members even realized Florida State willingly signed the grant of rights in 2016, giving the ACC control over its media rights through the end of its television contract in 2036.

“Was this a leverage play?” one administrator asked. “It seems like there would’ve been a lot better ways of handling it.”

Based on interviews with administrators and league officials over the past several days, the league has seemingly taken an “us versus Florida State” mentality — with both public and private comments intimating as much.

“One could argue they’re just trying to create chaos and that they thought the only way to make it work would be to break the league up,” one source said. “Part of the theory here is they bang the drum real loud and eventually everybody else would panic.”

A number of administrators from other ACC schools questioned why Florida State felt it deserved a larger revenue share, considering its football program has not won an ACC championship or been in the College Football Playoff since 2014. Florida State has presented numbers that show they bring 15% of the value to the TV deal but get 7% of the revenue. Currently, each ACC school shares that equally.

League commissioner Jim Phillips declined comment but several athletic directors did not after Alford’s remarks Wednesday. After the board meeting, a group of ACC ADs discussed how to best address the remarks and decided North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham would speak first publicly on their behalf. Cunningham told a local radio station Thursday it did the ACC no good for Florida State to be “barking like that.”

In comments to ESPN on Friday, Miami athletic director Dan Radakovich echoed what Cunningham said. “Florida State is doing what Florida State feels like it needs to do,” Radakovich said. “Each of our schools have to make their own decisions. But on top of all of it, we need to continue to try to make the ACC as strong as we can make it. We’ve got our grant of rights, we have all those other pieces that are associated with keeping ourselves together. Right now, we feel really strongly that our best course of action is to keep the ACC together and try to make it as strong as it can be.”

As one ACC administrator noted, the ACC is already losing the PR battle, with the Big 12 — a league with fewer signature programs, a lower TV valuation and no standalone network — being viewed as growing and stable, while the ACC looks to be teetering. Florida State’s public criticism of the league’s financial picture only exacerbates that problem.

Another school official did not think making loud statements would change any decision a president makes about unevenly distributing television revenue based on ratings. “Why would my president take money out of our pocket and give it to Florida State when it would only hurt us? We need to run an athletic department, too,” one source said.

The funniest part? North Carolina and Miami acting high and mighty, when they should appreciate the fact that FSU barking so loudly might be the only reason they aren’t part of the Super Weenie Hut Junior League come 2026.

The tonal shift overall has gone from one of denial to one of bitter acceptance — perhaps a reflection of reality setting in after news emerged that FSU has been working with JPMorgan Chase to explore ways of raising the athletic department’s equity — including sourcing private funding.

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Congratulations to all the summer 2023 Florida State graduates!

In total, the university awarded more than 3,000 degrees. They included 1,743 undergraduate degrees, 1,034 master and specialist degrees, 163 doctoral degrees, 76 Juris masters and 2 LLM degrees. About 1,800 students participated in the three ceremonies.

Summer commencement also marked a historic milestone for the university as its total alumni base surpassed 400,000 living graduates worldwide.