Board of Trustees chairman Peter Collins and president Dr. Richard McCullough joined Jeff Culhane on Florida State’s radio broadcast on Saturday afternoon during the extended lightning delay to give his thoughts on the football program, interim athletics director Bruce Warwick, the next AD hire and Washington legislation.
Notes from Collins
Collins called Warwick the “consummate professional.” Remarks that he’s not a Seminole but he and his family have put down roots in Tallahassee. Collins and Warwick talked a few times this week and he has “complete confidence in him” no matter how long the AD search takes.
A metaphor that sounds wild but it’s how Collins feels about the Protect College Sports Act: It’s like being blindfolded and putting your hand in a bag full of spiders and trying to pull out one specific spider.
He’s spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with Sen. Ashley Moody and Sen. Rick Scott as well as congressmen and congresswomen from around the state. He notes that a number of the elected officials aren’t sports fans and that they won’t grasp what FSU administrators did as far as taking the ACC to court and reaching a settlement in 2025.
With the five-year independence being part of the PCSA, where anyone leaving a power conference and wanting to move to another power conference would be subject to the penalty, he draws an analogy to a California resident wanting to move to Florida but they have to first go to Cuba for five years. With the nine-game league schedules, being independent is tougher. “Who is going to sign up to go to Florida State for one of those games?“
“I just don’t understand the whole thinking” of the five-year independence. Collins doesn’t like a one-year, three-year or five-year independence. Three is better but not plausible, he thinks.
Collins says the college athletics landscape is “totally different” than 5-10 years ago.
The discussion turned to the next athletics director search: “We need people that are focused on the business of athletics.” He says, as a rhetorical question, that “The first thing you have to ask yourself is what is your objective?” when making the AD hire. Collins thinks the criteria that you look for in an athletics director is different now from five, 10 or 15 years ago.
Similar to what FSU president Dr. Richard McCullough said on Monday, Collins thinks FSU may need to make “a few different hires” within the administration.
Collins complimented football general manager John Garrett, who was hired in December. “I’m really excited about John Garrett … he’s already doing a great job,” Collins said.
Notes from McCullough
McCullough joined the pregame show and had some similar comments to what he said from his Monday press conference.
In a college athletics landscape after the House-NCAA settlement, teams have invested in a variety of ways. He said “initially it looked like a cap.” But McCullough notes many schools “found a way to invest way beyond the cap.” The landscape is “changing really fast.”
McCullough said he “spent too much time on social media” on social media this week. He wasn’t referencing the dismissal of Michael Alford or the football team but shared his thoughts about what fans have posted, some of which he said made him angry. “I know our fans are impatient … but I understand that.” He acknowledged a responsibility for FSU football to improve.
To the point some fans have made of FSU not making those investments, McCullough said that’s not the case. He pointed to investments in the stadium, the roster’s revenue sharing and the coaching staff.
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