Breaking news: Florida State head coach Mike Norvell has announced his departure after all the….
FSU football head coach Mike Norvell was the talk of the town a year ago. He had flirted with leaving FSU for the Alabama job months after going 13-0 in the regular season and winning FSU’s first ACC Title in a decade.
That combination of things helped make him one of the highest-paid coaches nationally with a major contract extension, and he was on every top coaching list going into the 2024 season with FSU as the No. 10 team in the preseaso
Good, but not great. It’s in the upper half of the ACC, although that means less than it did five seasons ago. Still, once you get past the league’s powerhouse programs — namely, Duke, Louisville and North Carolina — Florida State has as much potential as many of the ACC’s middle-tier schools. Especially since Virginia and Syracuse have yet to prove they can thrive sans their totemic coaches, there’s plenty of room for FSU’s next coach to immediately ascend in what has become the most lackluster high-major conference.
Historically speaking, FSU has never been a hoops juggernaut, playing in only one national championship game in program history — in 1972 — and never returning to the Final Four thereafter. But that dismisses much of Hamilton’s success during the latter half of his tenure. He led FSU to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2008-2012, and again from 2017 to 2021. (That doesn’t include Hamilton’s 2019-20 squad, the best of his tenure, which was slated to earn at least a No. 2 seed and compete for a national championship.) Altogether, Hamilton made it to the Big Dance eight times in 23 seasons, with his 2018 Elite Eight appearance as the high-water mark. Existing in the shadow of football, this is not a program that has ever been a yearly postseason fixture, but regular appearances — with the occasional second-weekend run — are a must. The program’s recent slippage is more aberration than accepted norm.
In terms of investment, despite the university’s focus on football, Florida State hasn’t been stingy when it comes to the hardwood. FSU spent the third-most in the ACC and 21st most nationally on men’s basketball in 2022-23 — the most recent year for which financial data is available — according to U.S. Department of Education data. (That data notably does not include private schools, like Duke.) Florida State’s $13.7 million in expenses allocated for men’s basketball trailed only Louisville and Virginia in the conference, coming in about $500,000 behind the Cavaliers. The Seminoles aren’t setting the pace for men’s basketball spending, but considering not every high-major program invests double-digit millions, there are worse financial situations to enter.
That said, the university’s larger financial reality — and the program’s NIL situation — bear mentioning, and not in a good way. Hamilton has yet to file a response in court to his former players’ allegations, but the optics of them are bad regardless, especially in terms of luring future talent to Tallahassee. Additionally, FSU is still embroiled in multiple lawsuits against the ACC, in which it is attempting to get out of the conference’s Grant of Rights. Those off-court complications are a real deterrent; any incoming coach will have to deal with the repercussions, both short- and long-te
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