Florida State AD Michael Alford says no ‘magic number’ in revenue-sharing talks

Florida State athletic director Michael Alford recently addressed the media, discussing a wide variety of topics. One of which was the ongoing revenue-sharing talks for the ACC conference. When asked what the ‘magic number’ when it comes to revenue-sharing or Florida State is, Alford explained that it simply does not exist right now for the Seminoles.

“There’s not a magic number right now. Really what we’re looking for is to make sure we’re competitive. Because you look at what the revenue shares of other leagues and what they’re gonna have and how they’re gonna invest it,” said Alford. “And you need to be able to make sure that you can stay up to par with some of the changes they’re going to do and how they’re going to use that revenue. So we just need to be in the competitive look.

“We’re the third-best media agreement right now. We want to stay the third best. We’ve been able to compete with them being the third-best media agreement. And a lot of it comes down to choices that we will make on the funding. But as long as we’re there and competitive, that’s what the number is.”

Alford comments on the matter come shortly after it was reported that seven ACC schools, including Florida State, have been meeting with lawyers to figure out how “unbreakable” the conference’s Grant of Rights deal is. The other six schools looking into the strength of the ACC’s Grant of Rights are Miami, Clemson, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia Tech, and Virginia.

Alford explains why teams researched Grant of Rights terms

Alford was also asked if the schools looking at the conference’s Grant of Rights were just doing their due diligence or if there was something more to it. And it appeared as if the Seminoles AD was not willing to tip his hand at this current moment.

“When you look at the national landscape, you’ve got to get an understanding of what the Grant of Rights was,” Alford said. “And that’s, I mean, I can only speak for my institution and I think all the institutions have been in there at some point. I’m not sure and I can’t talk to them about, I mean, speak on their behalf.

As Alford explained, he and Florida State feel they need to take a better look at the Grant of Rights. That way, they understand it fully and know their options with it.

“But I know we thought it was our due diligence to go and examine it. Look at it. Get a review. Get advice on exactly what it means and what’s the triggers, what’s the dates. We just need to find that information out.”

On3’s Dan Morrison contributed to this story