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gatormarc

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Posts posted by gatormarc

  1. Agree with what I have seen here.

    It's always fun talking to current and former students. Everyone really has their own experience. The city changes a lot.

    There are definitely more chains now but there's frankly more of everything than when I was at school. The unique local options are still there but they aren't the same as they were before.

  2. https://www.tampabay.com/sports/2024/02/06/florida-state-private-equity-fsu-football-conference-realignment-acc/?fsu

    Inside Project Osceola: Florida State sports’ 9-figure private equity plan
    An ACC exit by 2026? Naming rights to Doak? They’re all mentioned in the 2,500 pages of records we received.

    Spoiler

    By Matt Baker
    Published Yesterday

    The first known mention of the two-word phrase that could revolutionize Florida State sports sits on the top of the third page of a cash projections spreadsheet from September 2022.

    Project Osceola.

    The name is a nod to the Seminoles’ spear-planting symbol. The project is a potential nine-figure private equity investment into FSU sports that could accelerate conference realignment and touch everything from the Tampa Bay Lightning to Minor League Baseball.

    After the sports business website Sportico first reported FSU’s private equity talks in August, the Tampa Bay Times requested public records from the Seminoles. The Times received more than 2,500 pages last week.

    The resulting picture is riddled with redactions and tantalizingly incomplete. Some of the most interesting tidbits are only semi-related — like a potential date for FSU to leave the ACC and a naming sponsor for Doak Campbell Stadium. It’s possible nothing ever materializes beyond due-diligence checklists and presentations labeled “strictly private and confidential.”

    But the emails, PDFs and spreadsheets still provide the deepest, albeit preliminary, glimpse of the complex legal theories, detailed financial discussions and groundbreaking possibilities of Project Osceola.

    The best explanation comes in a September 2022 email from Ken Artin, a public finance attorney at the firm Bryant Miller Olive. State agencies, he wrote, generally can’t become a “joint venture partner, equity partner and anything that looks like that” with a for-profit company. But there’s a workaround, which he called a “super license agreement.”

    FSU can move its intellectual property (like logos and names) to a new university entity. That new entity could license the intellectual property to someone else (a private-equity firm). The firm would then try to profit off that licensed material by using it better, more efficiently or in new ways.

    Within six months, that proposed non-profit entity had a name: FSU NewCo. The specific intellectual property available from FSU NewCo is redacted.

    The companies involved

    In August 2022, FSU and J.P. Morgan signed a non-disclosure agreement to work on a deal with outside investors. At least two private-equity firms were interested.

    One was Arctos, whose sports portfolio includes a share of the Lightning and Red Sox. The other was Sixth Street, which has a stake in the San Antonio Spurs and the sports entertainment company Legends Hospitality.

    FSU signed an exclusivity deal with Sixth Street over the summer.

    Financial terms

    In November 2022, at least two scenarios had $250 million in private equity.

    A second set of figures comes from an “ACC Upside” model in January 2023. It lists a $75 million initial investment plus a $50 million “follow-up equity investment” four years later. By 2032, it projects FSU’s 2032 cash flow to be $197 million — $46 million more than the “No Investment” scenario.

    An email from an attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell outlines FSU’s proposals in June: $25 million upfront, another $125 million under redacted circumstances plus up to $200 million in future debt “without consent and without additional limitations.”

    Beyond the cash injection, FSU’s goals (as laid out in an October 2022 presentation) included maximizing revenue opportunities to stay nationally competitive, modernizing management structure, ensuring flexibility in any deal and conducting the process in a way that protects FSU “from negative reaction from important constituents.”

    How FSU would use the money

    It’s unclear. Arctos and Sixth Street both wanted “a more concrete answer” in March.

    As FSU considered $250 million scenarios, athletic director Michael Alford and a school financial administrator, Michael Williams, wanted the money upfront for capital projects. J.P. Morgan’s Todd L. Smith responded that FSU “will ‘owe’ investors a return on that,” so “collecting it all up front if we don’t have immediate need or use will ‘cost’ something.”

    Paying off debt would make it easier to divvy up revenue between investors and FSU, according to discussion materials from September 2022. FSU has since approved $265 million in additional debt to renovate Doak Campbell Stadium.

    Additional operating expenses were also mentioned, and a June discussion included an initial purchase and “General Basket” of money FSU could use on anything.

    Could private equity fund FSU’s ACC exit?

    FSU redacted or withheld records as the school and conference litigate the Seminoles’ potential half-billion-dollar exit from the league. But FSU’s ACC future pops out of bars of black; one review featured a “General Basket” and unexplained “Conference Basket.”

    One of the “next steps” listed in October 2022: “Determine use of proceeds, especially in a ‘no realignment’ scenario.” By January 2023, there was a “Leave ACC” budget model. Its commentary is partially redacted, but conference payouts spike from $43 million in 2025 to $96.4 million the next year.

    Football ticket revenue for home games jumps, too. Its 2026 projections are $18.6 million — $3.2 million more than the “Base Case” — in part because of “post-ACC-exit ticket prices in-line with peers.”

    Sixth Street’s due diligence tracker had a March request for conference payout details in the “base case and conference change case.”

    Naming rights to Doak

    Projections for 2026 include naming rights to FSU’s football home, formally called Bobby Bowden Field at Doak S. Campbell Stadium. FSU’s Year 1 revenue ranges from $1.5 million to $5 million, depending on the document and its assumptions. Sponsorship for the basketball arena, the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, adds another $800,000-$2.6 million.

    USF (Yuengling Center), Florida (Exactech Arena) and UCF (FBC Mortgage Stadium) are among the state teams with corporate names on their buildings. Last season, Georgia Tech tacked on Hyundai Field to the name of its century-old Bobby Dodd Stadium.

    Multiple budgets add a concert series at Doak (four shows with 50,000 spectators each, according to an August model). FSU eventually expects these two revenue streams to top $10 million per year.

    Minor League Baseball in Tallahassee?

    That’s a possibility, according to a 10-year projection the sports consulting firm Navigate presented in 2022. The document lists a $75 million expense for FSU in the 2027 fiscal year for a new baseball stadium; the Seminoles’ Dick Howser Stadium is four decades old. FSU’s baseball revenue nearly doubles to $2.75 million.

    A new revenue source also appears in ’27: “Minor League Baseball Team.” It initially adds a combined $4.1 million in tickets, sponsorship/licensing and facilities. The idea is cited in at least one other document but never detailed.

    Multiple documents cite $8 million in name, image and likeness (NIL) contributions for the ’24 fiscal year. One scenario ups that figure by 2-3% each year. In another, donations spike to $11.1 million in ‘25 and $13.6 million by ‘32.

    These numbers are notable because they’re an official snapshot in a murky marketplace filled with unverifiable, third-party claims. They’re also relevant to Project Osceola; Sixth Street asked about FSU’s NIL partnerships and “plan moving forward” in July.

     

  3. 2 hours ago, LTtxfan said:

    The now: Florida AD Scott Stricklin points to Napier’s recruiting, but the 2024 class (ranked No. 15 by 247Sports composite) was the program’s worst ranking since Napier’s 1st class in 2022 (No. 18).

    I'm not sure what Hayes is going for here. That's only 3 classes, one of which isn't done yet, and also ignores any nuance like transfers including players like Grimsley that spent all of a week at Bama before enrolling at UF but he's not including in this signing class.

  4. 23 hours ago, Juicy said:

    Signing day already happened. Once they moved it to two signing days, the February 1 became no big deal. 

    Last year he interviewed with the Vikings ON the Feb Signing day. It worked out alright. 

    Also, now the rules are different now.

    Anyone who has signed an NLI can request a release without penalty and anyone on campus has 30 days to enter the portal once a head coach leaves.

  5. 6 hours ago, gmr548 said:

    Kentucky and Florida both scream trap game with where they are on the schedule. I'm not particularly worried about either team in a vacuum but given where they fall a slip up would not surprise me. Glad both are at home.

    Texas is sandwiched between rivalry games against Georgia and LSU on Florida's schedule, the game is at DKR, and Texas has a bye week before the game.

    None of that screams trap.

    • Hook 'Em 3
    • Like 1
    • Haha 2
  6. 33 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

    Not only is swaim full of shit I think that’s a fake swaim account 

    Yes about the former, but are you sure about the latter? When I search for him, @gswaim is the account that comes up.

  7. Oops.

    https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-cfp-may-withhold-added-revenue-from-smu-despite-power-five-move-145230576.html

    Sources: CFP may withhold added revenue from SMU despite Power Five move

    Spoiler

    Ross Dellenger
    Senior College Football Reporter
    Fri, Jan 5, 2024, 10:21 AM EST·5 min read

     

    HOUSTON — Inside a hotel board room Monday, a few hours before Washington meets Michigan in the national championship game, leaders of the College Football Playoff will gather to rubber-stamp a few important items.

    They are expected to formally approve format changes to the expanded playoff in light of the Pac-12's disbanding, moving to what’s termed a “5+7” format that features five automatic qualifying spots for conference champions and seven at-large spots for the next highest-ranked teams (the previous format was a 6+6). And they are also expected to adopt a policy requiring a league to have at least eight members to be eligible to earn an automatic qualifying spot in the playoff.

    But there is something else on the docket. It involves a school located just 250 miles from Houston.

    SMU, the latest Group of Five program to elevate to the Power Five next year with its jump to the ACC, is at the heart of a CFP money fight.

    In the past, schools making the jump from Group of Five to Power Five also saw a leap in their distribution from the College Football Playoff. The difference in annual payout between G5 teams ($1 million) and P5 teams ($6 million) is substantial.

    However, after a discussion among CFP commissioners on Nov. 9, SMU did not garner the necessary support for additional revenue distribution. The issue has now been shifted to the commissioners’ corresponding presidents on the CFP Board of Managers, the playoff’s highest governing body made up of a school president from each FBS conference and Notre Dame.

    Multiple conference commissioners declined comment on the matter as well as CFP executive director Bill Hancock. In a brief interview with Yahoo Sports, ACC commissioner Jim Phillips expressed disappointment on the issue but declined to elaborate on the details. SMU athletic director Rick Hart declined comment when reached this week.

    SEC commissioner Greg Sankey pointed toward the CFP’s long-standing rules around modifications to revenue policies.

    “You have to have a unanimous vote to alter revenue distribution and diminish somebody else’s revenue,” Sankey said. “That’s it.”

    A formal vote is possible Monday among the 11-member CFP Board of Managers following a scheduled gathering of the commissioners. CFP leaders could push the topic to another time or, possibly, reach a compromise by agreeing to grant SMU a portion of the Power Five revenue.

    In many ways, this fight over revenue is a precursor to the looming money battle among the 10 FBS conferences after the current CFP contract expires following the 2025 playoff. The CFP’s television contract with ESPN is what binds the leagues together under a previously agreed upon revenue distribution model.

    The CFP is in the midst of negotiating a new television deal, and a new revenue distribution model is expected to start in 2026, at which point, presumably, SMU will be granted a full Power Five payout.

    For the next two years, however, the school could be out $6 million that officials expected to receive. That includes the $1 million CFP share from the Group of Five as that, too, is at stake.

    During negotiations to join the ACC, the school committed to the conference under the impression that it would receive the full CFP funds, according to comments made by SMU officials in August. There was recent precedent of such a guarantee. In 2022, the CFP voted to distribute full Power Five payouts to new Big 12 schools UCF, Cincinnati, Houston and BYU — all of them elevating from G5 to P5.

    Making the situation especially painful is the unique arrangement that SMU made with the ACC. Heavily motivated to be in the Power Five and backed by a plethora of mega-boosters, SMU agreed to accept no television revenue from the ACC in its first nine years in the conference. That said, school officials expected to receive non-television ACC payouts that total at least $10-12 million annually — roughly half of which, it thought, would come from the CFP.

    Without the CFP, SMU’s first nine years in the ACC may generate annually roughly half of what it earned in distribution while in the American Athletic Conference (about $9 million).

    Currently, the CFP distributes $460 million annually. About 80% goes to the Power Five and 20% to the Group of Five.

    The Big Ten and SEC, swelling to 18 and 16 members, respectively, with arguably eight of the top-10 most valuable brands in the sport, may urge for the distribution model to further skew toward them as a new “Power 2,” a term widely used to describe college football’s behemoth leagues.

    The revenue battle is likely to be a hotly contested showdown and one that could come soon. The CFP, expanding to 12 teams starting next season, is working towards a new, lucrative television deal that may necessitate a modified revenue distribution model as soon as this year.

    CFP leaders are expected to get an update on TV negotiations next week. Multiple potential suitors have presented before commissioners, including ESPN, Fox, NBC, Turner and Amazon. ESPN owns the rights for the championship game, semifinals and quarterfinals through the 2025 playoff and gets first right to match in first-round games.

    If the CFP does deny SMU’s Power Five funding, the association sets a moratorium on additional revenue for those schools elevating from Group of Five to Power Five — a policy likely to even span into a new CFP contract starting in 2026. The move is yet another sign that college leaders are attempting to restrict Division I’s highest body from further expansion.

    That goes for those moving from FCS to FBS. For instance, the Division I Board of Directors increased the FBS entrance from $5,000 to $5 million last year.

     

    • Haha 1
  8. 2 hours ago, John80 said:

    So Florida State lost by 60 points and think they should been in over an Alabama team that lost in overtime. As someone who has followed another ACC school Florida State's fanbase and administration has always been this stupid but they only recently started broadcasting their behavior to the entire country.

    In my biased opinion, there has always been a little bit of a "little brother" thing with FSU but I don't think anything more than you see from other "State" schools, and in fact they had been surpassed by UCF fans in that regard because FSU was also seen as establishment (and has now had decades of success) while UCF had no legit way to get access to the big time so those fans were the loud and obnoxious ones in the state.

    What we're seeing now is that FSU feels like a rat in a cage and much of it, they have had a hand in creating. 

    Most FSU fans a year or two ago were confident they could just hand wave themselves out of the ACC. FSU sites sold subscriptions to chumps by making it sound like it was going to happen any minute now for awhile. 

    And now the first time ever, they didn't get the benefit of the doubt despite playing a substandard schedule. Of course, they've now been talking shit about the ACC for a year plus now and are shocked pikachu when everyone agrees with them.

    Then consider the fact that the playoff could have expanded this year but the ACC went all in with The Alliance™ to block it. FSU fans at the time loved it because it was "giving the SEC the finger" and couldn't understand how the expansion was good for everyone. More shocked pikachu when they found out that the B1G was double crossing the other two members just like everyone else had warned.

    So yeah, they're cranky as fuck because they know they are fucked and they know they had a hand in getting fucked.

    All of their attempts to come across like a victim ring hollow because they know they are bullshitting.

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  9. 19 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

    What? Is FSU's depth all Division III guys or something?

    Norvell hasn't been lighting it up in recruiting. He's not a bad recruiter by any means, but he has not recruited at an elite level yet.

    Up to now, he has done very well in the portal to fill in those gaps and he has always known for his coaching acumen, not just some guy who throws talent at a problem.

    This year was his first elite level class but it took several hits on ESD though they did still sign a very talented class.

    It's worth noting that the UF class that got gutted pretty bad on ESD and was considered one of the big losers on ESD still has a higher average rating than this year's FSU class. 

  10. 2 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

    I don't understand this. They have won things, why are they acting like such losers?

    Like they are the only school to have been screwed over by the Bowls/BCS/Committee or whatever.

    I think it's the culmination of things.

    For decades, they were cut out of the SEC because frankly they didn't bring anything to the deal. To be fair, no one did. UF sponsored them about a dozen times and most of the time, it never got to a second to bring to discussion.

    They joined the ACC over the SEC because they wanted an easier route to a football championship and to advance their basketball program and also because they wanted to be part of the upper crust of academics. 

    They saw it as a route to jump Florida in all three while also thumbing their nose at the SEC and decades of being ignored.

    Football wise, it worked great through most of Bowden's tenure. They love to point at the ridiculously long string of top 5 finishes thanks in large part to a weak schedule. It was a calculated decision and it paid off. Next year, it will too once the playoff expands. This year, it didn't.

    Basketball wise, they had to watch UF win 2 titles and go to an additional two Final Fours when they were supposed to be the basketball program in the state because of the ACC (see 2020 banner).

    Recently, FSU's academics finally started to improve, but they are still well behind UF. 

    Athletically, they have also improved a lot too but still behind UF.

    And now they are dealing with an unforeseen monetary gap because they are not in the Big 2 while also dealing with fan dissatisfaction because most FSU fans still are not interested in most of their conference opponents unless they are winning big. Going to Tally is a pain for most of the fans in the core population of the state and it's not a cheap weekend.

    Those little things add up if you aren't playing enticing games either because of your opponents or because you aren't winning. They are currently looking to reduce capacity of Doak to 65k as part of their current renovations. That's not uncommon now but it's a big drop.

     

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  11. 28 minutes ago, thunderlounge said:

    I never said they care. They can't understand the difference between competitive football and pop-warner, let alone what "undefeated" means.

    They prefer the term "unconquered"

    It's the FSU version of Aggies' "we never lost, just games we were behind when time ran out"

  12. 11 hours ago, Rimbo said:

    They could've shown up, beaten Georgia, hung a "2023 Undefeated National Champs" banner in their gym.

     

    They might still.

    They've already announced they are lighting up the capitol building for their undefeated season.

    I understand they hung a Final Four banner for their 2020 basketball team.

    • Rage+1 1
  13. 27 minutes ago, TrashMaster G said:

    From what I heard on TV, yes they can examine it. But my question stands - is that not just shady as hell that you don't get a copy of the contract you signed? 

    For something this big and significant, that would seem to be something you want.

    The whole thing is shady.

    There are copies of the 2013 agreement and 2016 amendment already out there.

    All FSU will say is that those docs may not be 100% accurate.

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