FSU AD Michael Alford on House Settlement, changes to CFB landscape: 'I'm very prepared'

Florida State University athletic director Michael Alford appeared on ACC Network to discuss the latest developments within the Atlantic Coast Conference and how they relate to FSU.

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Alford was joined by Miami AD Dan Radakovic and was interviewed by ESPN's Andrea Adelson and David Hale. They discussed the AD's role in adapting to the changes in the sport, including the House Settlement and the 12-team College Football Playoff.

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In the earlier portion of the interview, Hale asked the ADs if and how much their jobs have and will change as the House settlement (The legal ruling that mandates a little over $20 million cap to student-athletes from institutions) is soon to be finalized later this year.

Alford responded:

"It 100% has changed, but it's changing for the better and the House Settlement hopefully continues to look like it's going to end where it's going to end in April, and puts everything on a level playing field. But then, looking at your budgets and everything that it's going to impact within that with the redistribution of those dollars, and just planning for it. So it has changed a little bit. I go back to when I was in the NFL side of things in my 10 years in the league, of looking at fair market value, and how we evaluated that, and how that's going to come into play. So a lot of that's similar to then, but just with a collegiate twist on it. So I think Dan's very prepared for it. I'm very prepared. We've looked at this week, we've known this House Settlement's been coming and talked about for many years in the court system. So we've been preparing for how we're going to adjust our business practices."

Furthermore, Adelson asked the ADs how the House Settlement would affect their football programs, specifically. Alford stated that while "football drives at both institutions" (the other school being Miami), his main concern is how it's going to affect other sports at FSU. However, that does not mean Alford is letting football go to the backburner in any way.

"We compete for national championships in soccer and softball; beach volleyball is right [there]. The student-athlete experience and other sports are really our main focus at Florida State University to make sure that we continue to provide those winning-edge resources, and to continue to compete at a national level within those sports as well ... Football is going to compete at a high level. We're going to provide the resources because that is the economic engine, but really, the focus has been on our end to make sure that we're providing those resources across the board as well."

Moreover, Alford was asked about the NFL-style dynamic of having to manage rosters with millions of dollars involved in an official capacity (non-NIL). He responded by saying that FSU has been prepared for this for years.

"We've had a GM for several years, so that's not a new practice to what we've been ... really looking at, preparing ourselves for a few years, knowing that this was coming. It wasn't sprung on us last minute. We've had a couple of years to prepare for this and really set up our organization to be more NFL-like. We've done that the last several years and it's really paid dividends for us so we're prepared for this new era of collegiate athletics."

For the entire interview, you can find it below:

ICYMI: From last night’s Inside ACCess… @aadelsonESPN and I sat down with Miami AD Dan Radakovich and FSU AD Michael Alford to talk about rev share, CFP access & the future of college athletics… pic.twitter.com/aAga8TsZ5t
— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) February 11, 2025

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