The average per yearly revenue is $115 million per year, a 300 percent increase over previous contracts

NCAA and ESPN Deal

I have read and listened to several columns and analysis of the thing from yesterday in Miami Gardens. Some good, some not so good. I've read a lot of posts here and other sites. Some fair; many unfair and self-serving. The ones that trouble me most are the ones that butcher players and coaches basically for disappointing them and spoiling the joy they thought they are entitled to that comes from winning or, at a minimum, not being embarrassed.

But there is an aspect in all the comments, columns and analysis that is blatantly missing and it was missing from the reporting and commentary from the pre-game dialogue, too. I can't find a single reference to Coach Mike Norvell winning the Dodd Coach of the Year. Somehow that recognition got swept away in the piling on of criticisms for opt outs, transfers and declaring for the draft. I'm sure you've seen and heard it as I have. "FSU doesn't have the team pride that UGa demonstrated. Those players are just selfish and lack courage." etc, etc.

The Dodd Coach of the Year award is awarded to the Div 1 coach that develops the team that best reflects achievement in academics, on the field of competition and in the community. The 2023 FSU squad achieved the highest GPA in school history in 2023. With an APR of 983, FSU ranks 23rd in Div 1 schools. In 2019, FSU's APR was the lowest in Div 1 schools at 936; below East Carolina. FSU graduated 69 football players who earned their degree and attained a 3.0 GPA in their last term before graduation. Bobby Dodd would be proud of this. Bobby Bowden would be proud of this. The ACC and commissioner Phillips says nothing specifically about it.

Florida State football players have served the community for many years and most know about former OG Gibbons enormously successful award winning Big Man, Big heart program from 2021. But of perhaps more relevancy to the current discussion is this:

"Turning adversity into action.

In line with the standard set by Mike Norvell’s program — channeling challenging moments into positive moments — Florida Stateplayers Jordan Travis, Trey Benson, Keon Coleman and Ja’Khi Douglas are teaming up with FSU alumnus Dillon Gibbons and his non-profit “Big Man, Big Heart” to raise money for the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs in Big Bend (Tallahassee), Tampa Bay, Gainesville, and Coral Gables.

In the immediate aftermath of the snub, those players directly affected by it applied CMN's teaching to control what you can control and not be controlled by others into tangible practice and raised close to $30,000. Coach Norvell's teams serves the communities. But the response of the 2023 club is more than remarkable in the face of the disappointment they had just confronted. Bobby Dodd would be proud. Bobby Bowden would be proud. All of Florida State alumni, students and fans should be proud. Selfish? Not bloody likely.

Anyone reading this internet fish wrapping knows the on the field of competition story. FSU was undefeated for 13 straight games; was ranked as high as #3 in the Coaches' Poll and, interestingly, the CFPSC ranking. Some may have forgotten that when Heisman finalist, Jordan Travis went down, FSU was trailing in the game by double digits. With a backup QB and numerous injured players (some missing the game) Norvell rallied his players in the face of the decimating prospect of losing Jordan Travis and won its 11th game. Game 12 was against our biggest rival, in their swamp and we had our second string QB and still more injured players, including Keon and several OL. We fell behind, but he rallied the squad to victory. But being lizards, the slimy bastards had to target our QB while he was on the ground and give him a concussion. We go to game 13 and the conference championship against a top 15 team anxious to win their very first ACCC with a true freshman at QB. A true freshman who had missed ~6 weeks of the season with an injured hand. Again CMN led the team to victory #13 and the 19th consecutive win over the past 2 seasons. That victory was achieved on the road, with injuries to Coleman, Bethune, Farmer, Scott, Darius, Toafili, and Bell. All of college football should have been proud of this show of courage and determination. Many were; just not Sankey, ESPN and the CFPSC members. Using ESPN's strength of schedule matirx instead of the NCAA's and ignoring the ESPN SOR ranking in the top 3, FSU was denied the chance to compete.

So my question is how is it that Norvell's recognition as the Dodd Trophy winner has become a ghost? My answer is to reference it would confront analyst, columnists and posters with the uncomfortable problem of explaining how a team that has achieved so much on and off the field could justifiably be left left out? Instead, these vocal noise makers tortuously blame the Heisman Trophy finalist for getting injured as the justification. And when the players, coaches and fans provided tangible vedio evidence of the injury having not occurred when the call for snubbing FSU first was broadcasted, the noise volume increased to say the team was not good enough. Norvell's recognition by the Dodd Award is the third party objective endorsement that FSU had to be included in the playoff, if it was in fact a playoff.

Oddly enough, one of the prime reasons cited by the committee for the snub was that an FSU team without Jordan would not be as competitive and the ratings might not be as good. They referenced the TCU game of last year where UGa blew them out and they said they didn't want a repeat of that. So their solution was to drop FSU and avoid the problem. Of course they lacked the self awareness to anticipate that once you told a team that had been built and was successful for playing for something more than yourself; for your teammates, family, and school; that what they had accomplished was unworthy, they would not have a reason to compete.

Most of you who read these game weekend notes know that I called for the players and coaches to rally and compete to win so that the committee would have to answer how a 14-0 team could not be competing for the championship. I knew this was a long shot, but I also thought not competing would be more harmful in both the short and long term. CMN could not bring himself to ask his players that he cares so deeply for to risk injury and delay surgeries only to have even a win be ultimately demeaned by the CFPSC's banker ESPN and the playoff coalition of B1G, SEC, ESPN, Fox and the bowls. He left the decision to them, as he should. Some remained ready to compete, come what may (Bethune, DeLoach, Fiske, Washington, Toafili, Farmer) Others took a more pragmatic approach that is completely understandable. A few reflected the effect the anger and frustration and sought a transfer. Some others were encouraged to transfer. So FSU was without 13 all ACC team members and 20 players who rotated in the two deep. Instead of delaying surgeries until after the game, Farmer, Toafili and Bethune went ahead to get a head start on next season. Others who played were cautioned not to take unnecessary risks. FSU had true freshmen playing or starting against 2 time national champions that also felt offended by the CFPSC. In all FSU was without ~30 players that were part of the 2023 13 win season. Congratulation CFP LLC. You have pulled back the vail and shown the paying public just what a farce you have created for the money.

The irony is the CFPSC created exactly what they hoped to avoid. The OB demonstrated the empty platitudes of "on field achievement" and "fairness" will destroy the sense of competition that is the cornerstone of college football. They also got the blowout they hoped not to replicate and I'm certain will have negative impact on the launch of the expanded playoffs. The CFPSC and its banker, ESPN has met the enemy and it is them.

It was all so completely avoidable.

Thoughts?

Enters the portal. I know he had snapping issues but can he block?

A strong defensive start and a balanced scoring attack helped the FSU men's basketball team convincingly win its ACC home opener vs. Georgia Tech.

Rumors that he might hit the portal! He was coached by Surtain in high school I believe.

With 11 minutes to go in the fourh quarter and Washington leading Texas 34-21, I was ready to hit post thread with the following message but then the UT quarterback threw a pair of dimes to make the score 33-28 with a little under 8 minutes remaining to put Texas right back in it.

All season long, Fish and I have had a respectful debate about Washington.
I didn't think their defense was good enough to win a playoff game let alone the national championship.
To his credit he was very patient with me, while continuing to assure me Washington has too much offense to lose.
He was right. I was wrong.

This has been a good game.

FSU 82 GT 71 The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly


The Good

FSU starts off the new year in the win column improving its record to 7-6, 1-1 spurred by a much better team effort that was seen earlier this season such as in the games in Daytona. GT has been waiting since January, 2016 to win in Tallahassee. After tonight the Yellow Jackets are still waiting. Tech led once ... 3-0. It was all Florida State from then on leading by as many as 17 points in the first half. Tech closed the gap to 8 points twice in the second period. But FSU's defense stiffened and held Tech off. This was a win the team needed.

Key in the win offensively anyway was the play of the bench scoring 42 points to just 16 for the Jackets. Everybody who played scored something for Florida State. As Leonard Hamilton said in post game tonight the team "shared the ball and moved the ball". Even when Tech picked up its tempo and was making its run at the lead, the Seminole offense was clicking shooting an astounding 64% from the floor in the second half.

Leading the team in scoring was Chandler Jackson with a career high 14 points. Jamir Watkins added 11, all in the second half, and Darin Green scored 10.

Also key in the win was a stifling defense in the first half, FSU's quick to the ball defense held Tech to 27% from the floor and 1-14 (that's 7% for those of you keeping score at home) from the arc..

Notable plays of the game: Jackson's driving lay up from the left, 37-22, and then stealing the inbound pass. Jalen Warley driving in the lane is tripped. Falling, Warley flips the ball up and in, 62-49. Not to make light of Tech's Charles Kelly falling into the end line seats and getting shaken up enough to have to substitute for him, but that allowed Hamilton to pick Tech's worst FT shooter, Tafara Gaspara who is 54% from the stripe. He lived up to that percentage and then some missing both. Primo Spears' alley oop pass to Cameron Corhen for the slam dunk, 26-17. Corhen with the offensive putback at the intermission buzzer staying with the play when Tech appeared to give up when the shot clock went off two seconds earlier. Warley keeping Tech at bay sinking two critical FTs with 38 seconds left, 78-69. The baseball inbound pass from Jackson to a wide open Warley and the layup, 80-69. Baba Miller displaying his pro potential with the driving lay up in an instant from the right wing for the slam.


The Bad

On Miller's slam, he was fouled on the play and looked to make it the conventional three point play. He missed however. A 43% shooter from the stripe obviously needs some work.

As Hamilton mentioned, ball movement was very good. One play early in the second half highlighted that as players without the ball were moving. The ball was moving. Everything was going well on the possession. Except until the ball ended up in Warley's hands with just seconds left on the shot clock. The result was Warley's shot being stuffed.

De'Ante Green and his lone three point attempt. BTW, he was wiiiiiide open. You know why he was wiiiiiiide open? He was 1-9 now 1-10 from the arc. If he is wondering why no one is guarding him out there, that's why. Either make them or post up. I vote for the post up.

Microcosms of good and bad in this game. Mostly good, but .... twice timing on the lob from Spears to Justin Gainey resulted in a turnover and twice passes to the sideline had the receiver with a foot on the line. Turnover or should I say turnovers? One of those occurred with just five seconds expended on the shot clock. Patience Grasshopper. Patience.


The Ugly

FSU's defense clamped down at the arc as mentioned earlier. In the early minutes of the second half, Tech essentially forgot all about the arc and went to dribble penetration creating an 8-0 run. And then FSU goes to a zone for two consecutive possessions. The result was two straight threes from the Jackets, End of the zone defense at that point.

Warley fouling a 3 point shooter (Kelly) with just 4.6 seconds left in the game????? He should not have been within 5 feet of him at that point. Time plus scoreboard. Always a good measurement of dictating your defense.


Up Next

The other Tech comes to Tallahassee on Saturday for a 4 PM tip to be shown on the ACCN. When we last saw the 9-4, 1-1 Hokies, they were busily being hammered by Wake Forest at Wake Forest 86-63. Not the performance they were looking for I am sure. This should be a very focused Virginia Tech team FSU faces especially with an entire week to prepare. VT is led by Lynn Hunter (16 ppg), Hunter Catoor (14 ppg), and Sean Padulla (12 ppg) the last two seemingly having been at Virginia Tech now for 8 years (not really).

I’ve seen a few posts here from members suggesting we may be a 2-4 loss team. Where are all those losses coming from. My guess with DJU, MJJ and a few nice portal additions we should be favored to win the conference.

Biggest threats are ND away, um at home and clemmy at home. ND away is the only one that is really worrisome to me, and that is a non-conference game. fu is also at home, and they are hemorrhaging talent with no end in sight. UNC … no Drake Maye, and we’ve owned them even when rebuilding.

Our biggest issue would be if DJU goes down, and I think Brock’s development is accelerating to manage that.

I think we go 12-1 or 13-0 again. Possibly 11-2 with an unexpected loss, but still ACC champs.

After a brief dive into conference play last month at North Carolina, the Florida State men's basketball team dives into the deep end of ACC play Wednesday night vs. Georgia Tech. The Seminoles (6-6, 0-1) host the Yellow Jackets (8-4, 1-0) Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ACC Network) at the Tucker Civic Center for their home ACC opener. It's the first of 19 consecutive conference games to close out the regular season for the Seminoles and the fifth game of FSU's current seven-game homestand.

For FSU, it's a chance to bounce back after their two-game winning streak was snapped last Saturday in a 78-75 home loss to Lipscomb. Sophomore forward Cam Corhen returned to action in that game after missing the previous five games due to injury, but the Seminoles allowed Lipscomb to shoot 11 of 23 from outside the arc, building a big early lead and holding off a late FSU comeback to pull off the upset and send the Seminoles back to .500 on the season.

Senior Darin Green Jr. enters Wednesday’s game against Georgia Tech ranked seventh nationally among current players with 332 career 3-point shots made. He and Joseph Girard III of Clemson are both ranked in the top seven nationally among current players. Girard has made 335 career 3-point shots.

LOOK FOR FLORIDA STATE TO...
...Defeat Georgia Tech and win its sixth consecutive home game against the Yellow Jackets. The Seminoles have defeated Georgia Tech in each game at the Donald L. Tucker since an 88-77 win on January 24, 2018
...Defeat Georgia Tech and win its ACC home opener against the Yellow Jackets for the third consecutive time when the two teams played in the Seminoles’ ACC home opener. The Seminoles defeated the Yellow Jackets to open their home conference schedule in 2019 and 2020 (2019-20, December 31, 2019, 70-58), (2020-21, December 15, 2020, 74-61).

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GO NOLES!!!

From an excellent article in the athletic, I am cutting and pasting an incredible bit of information that is not general knowledge, but rather the bench mark of the “eye test”

This was the first year that a super team lost to a developmental team. This may be the turn of a movement in college football now, where FSU is near the forefront with stable coaching and relationship buoy recruiting, which was lost during the COVID years due to lack of visits and travel.

The super teams always, always, always beat the developmental teams at the end of the year.

Well, Michigan just proved it’s not always.

The 2023 Alabama team boasts the second-most talented roster — on paper — in the modern recruiting era (dating back to 2002). The average scholarship player on this team was a top-100 recruit coming out of high school. That is an absurd statistic. Even if half of the signees didn’t pan out, Alabama would still have 40-ish players who lived up to their recruiting hype and would be among the best players at their position in the country. That’s basically an entire two-deep. It’s unfathomable how many good players are on this team.

For those that have seen Kam Davis play, what former Noles RB’s does he resemble? Warrick Dunn, Devonte Freeman, Antone Smith, Lorenzo Booker?

Hit the portal yesterday. @Fishbits Any change FSU makes another run at him?

FSU defensive end Gilber Edmond is transferring out of the program just one season after joining the Seminoles from South Carolina.

In a discussion with my eye doctor today and he indicated that a lot of players have agents helping them get better deals with other schools. I thought it was prohibited to sign deals with agents while in college. Maybe I’m wrong…anybody know about this?

Throughtout the season, I did a comparison of how many 4 and 5 star prospects participated in the game compared to how many played for the opponent. That 2023 team went 13-0 while being outmanned in the LSU, Clemson, Miami, Florida and Louisville games

So how does in look for next year?

By my count, FSU had two 5 star prospect on the 2023 last year (Akeem Dent and Hykeem Williams) and 21 four-star prospects. Of those 4 stars, 12 were freshmen or redshirt freshmen and only a few played a substantial amout (Hussey, Hikeem, D. Hill, Armella) so the Noles got a lot done with good evaluaions of three star players.

The Seminoles will have more five stars than last year with three (Williams, DJU and Marvin Jones) and 31 four stars for a total of 34 so if you measure a roster by star count the numbers are trending in the right direction.

The addition of DJU at quarterback and Marvin Jones at defensive end help to satisfy position needs, which is of paramount importance. I'd like to see FSU add another player at the following positions through the portal or later signing period: DE, DT, LB, OL and maybe TE, RB and receiver if he is a deep threat. By the look of their transfer portal hey are bringing in those positions on visits.

Well, whaddya know? Both undefeated Michigan and Washington beat one-loss Alabama and one-loss Texas. Perhaps it really does mean something when you win all your games.

I see there are a lot of knowledgeable folks and maybe some attorneys on this forum. Anybody tracking the status of the Florida AG’s civil investigative demand subpoena of the CFP LLC for antitrust? Her stated dates were Dec. 26 to begin answering with a final deadline of Jan. 11. Seems like discovery from that preceding civil action might be useful to another state entity’s civil case.

After winning the Dodd Trophy last week, FSU coach Mike Norvell was named one of five finalists for the Munger Coach of the Year award today.

Jerry…..I’m assuming there are a very limited number of companies who write those injury insurance policies. Have you ever seen the language in those short term policies and do you have any knowledge of the cost of coverage?

It wasn't long ago there were some serious questions about FSU's wide receiver recruiting. The Seminoles have signed seven blue-chip, high-school wide receivers over the last two classes, flipping that narrative on its head.