Before I start I will say that we are nowhere near dropping the program, nor do I want us to take such drastic measures. I pray that we win today and start moving upward again. I know that some posters will freak out and call me a troll (I'm not) just for bringing this up as a point of discussion. Albeit horrible, it is interesting to discuss though.
During moments of pique I bet we have all said it at some point in the last few seasons, many of likely said it Saturday night..."This program is dead, we need to drop football." We don't mean it, and when we calm down we feel kind of silly, or at least I do, but what would that look like? Could it actually happen?
What if FSU gets blown out by Wake today and then Louisville next Saturday, the team quits and we go winless or 1-11? What if the recruiting class falls apart? We can't really afford to fire Norvell while we are still paying Taggart, and it would be a bad look to fire another coach after two years, so we keep him. Then there is little to no improvement in 2022 and the bottom falls out. The fan base is gone. The ACC from a financial standpoint is still the ACC, which means little to no help from that sector. NIL makes the rich richer and the poor (which now includes FSU) poorer. What if the football program continues to lose huge amounts of money (like it is now) and is a drain, rather than a help, to other athletic programs? I think that might leave us with very few choices, and none of them are good.
1. Continue to try to keep up with the big boys, which means hemorrhaging money that we don't have?
2. Cut overhead to the bone and be content with being a below average program at best, taking what money there is coming in from the ACC? Kind of like Wake or Syracuse?
3. Cut our losses and drop the program entirely?
USF, FAU and UCF have football teams, are they money makers? How about FCS and Dii programs? Do they make money? I suspect that they do not, and if not why do they exist? Is it just to add to the student experience? To offer scholarships to 85 young men, many of them from difficult backgrounds that may not go to college otherwise? In other words, results on the field don't really matter. Would a proud FSU fan base be ok with this?
Many people are starting to compare FSU to Nebraska or Tennessee. Well, one of those teams is in the SEC and the other is in the BIG, they don't have major money concerns.
I obviously don't have answers. But if the end came what do y'all think it would look like? Is it even a remote possibility? Would the university keep a program that operates in the red by millions of dollars every year?
