From Newsweek · Jordan Sigler · · 1m 30s
Florida State fires its AD after one bad Monday
A Week 1 loss to SMU cost Florida State its athletic director, and the coach may be next.
In brief
A Week 1 loss to SMU cost Florida State its athletic director, and the coach may be next. Firing Mike Norvell would cost FSU close to $100 million, so the school started restructuring where it could afford to. Originally reported by Newsweek.
Fans wanted the coach gone
Florida State lost 27-24 to SMU in Week 1, and fans walking out of Doak Campbell Stadium on Monday chanted for head coach Mike Norvell to be fired.
The buyout math blocks that
Norvell's buyout alone runs close to $50 million. Add a new staff and a roster rebuild and FSU is looking at roughly $100 million to start over.
So the AD went instead
FSU parted ways with athletic director Michael Alford effective Monday. President Richard McCullough named Bruce Warwick interim AD while a national search runs.
The board calls it phase one
Trustees chairman Peter Collins framed the move as the start of a bigger restructuring, saying past investments in athletics and Seminole Boosters were not enough.
“Changes like this are never easy, but sometimes necessary.”
More changes are coming
Replacing the AD first is the usual order of operations. A new athletic director gets to pick the next football coach, which points at where this ends.
“The President and the Board are in lockstep on the mission and what the results must be.”
Norvell's record tells the story
He is 39-35 at FSU and 22-27 in the ACC. After a 13-1 season in 2023, he has won just eight games since, and Alabama waits on the road Saturday.
The key point
Firing Mike Norvell would cost FSU close to $100 million, so the school started restructuring where it could afford to.
