Florida State ramps up athletics spending; budget soars over $172 million in FY2023

After making more major investments in football, the Florida State athletics budget appears to be climbing closer to one of the 10 largest in the country.

During the 2023 fiscal year, which ran through June 2023, FSU spent just over $172 million ($172,130,700) to run the Seminoles’ athletics department, according to documents obtained from the university by Warchant and other media outlets.

That total is more than $21 million higher than Florida State’s total operating expenses just one year earlier; the Seminoles reported expenses of $150,777,734 in fiscal year 2022.

According to USA Today’s NCAA athletics finances database, which contains information from last year, the total of $172 million would have ranked No. 9 in the country — slightly ahead of Penn State and just behind the University of Florida, which spent $174 million in 2022.

In 2022, Florida State ranked 15th nationally in terms of overall athletics spending. (Note: The USA Today database does not include information from Notre Dame, Miami and other private institutions, and the full national database for 2023 likely won’t be updated until this summer.)

Florida State also saw a major increase in total revenue during the most recent fiscal year — a jump of more than $8 million to $169,558,790. But that still left the athletics department with a shortfall of nearly $2.6 million — one year after FSU finished with a surplus of just over $10 million.

When reached for comment, Florida State Athletics Director Michael Alford pointed out that annual financial figures in college athletics are never a true apples-to-apples comparison and that funds and projects from one year often carry over to the next.

“Florida State Athletics is financially stable and healthy,” Alford said in a statement. “While the report represents a 365-day time frame, it provides only a limited snapshot of revenues and expenses over that period. As we know, our collections of revenue and our expenditures on projects transcend that time frame. Any analysis of this information should consider those limitations and understand that it is unable to fully depict our Athletic Department’s fiscal reality.

“Funds used to cover the increase in expenditures for that time frame were not only from revenues cited in the report, but also from funds raised in past years.”

The largest expenditure increases for FSU were nearly all related to football.

Support staff salaries for football rose from about $3.2 million to just over $5 million, as Florida State expanded its recruiting and scouting departments and added off-field analysts.

The Seminoles’ football recruiting budget also jumped from $899,308 to about $1.24 million.

The biggest increase of all is harder to define. Under the category of “other operating expenses” for football, the Seminoles spent over $32.1 million last year; that was a leap from $16.8 million the year before. That category includes renovations and other construction projects, according to Alford.

Football Expense (major increases)	Fiscal Year 2022	Fiscal Year 2023	Difference
Support Staff	$3.2 million	$5.06 million	$1.86 million
Recruiting	$899,308	$1,237,441	$338,133
‘Other’ expenses	$16.8 million	$32.1 million	$15.3 million

The Seminoles also saw major leaps on the revenue side, thanks to improvement in the football program under head coach Mike Norvell. After going 5-7 in 2021, the Seminoles went 10-3 in 2022 and saw substantial increases in ticket sales and contributions.

FSU’s football ticket sales went from $15.1 million to $22.8 million that year. And overall athletics department contributions soared from $41.7 million to $54.2 million.

Other notable revenue increases came from the ACC, including a rise in media rights of almost $2 million to $32,315,659, and a $2.5 million bump in conference bowl revenue distribution.

The less-defined category of “other operating revenue” decreased from over $11.2 million to $2.9 million.

Of course, Florida State’s athletics budget is likely only going to keep increasing from here. Just last week, the Seminoles agreed to raise Norvell’s salary to an average of over $10 million per year following overtures from Alabama, and the university also is making other commitments to enhance the football program as well.

And FSU has begun construction on two major capital projects related to football — renovations of Doak Campbell Stadium, which are expected to cost about $265 million, and a new standalone football facility with a reported price tag of $138 million.

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.