Florida State AD Michael Alford analyzes new College Football Playoff format | Q&A Part III

The College Football Playoff format expanding from four participants had long seemed inevitable.

The 11-member CFP board of managers made that prevailing perception a reality Friday. They unanimously voted to increase the CFP allotment to 12 teams, which could go into effect as early as 2024 and as late as 2026.

Florida State athletic director Michael Alford assessed the news Friday evening in a one-on-one phone conversation with the Democrat.

“We all knew it was coming. It was the one reason we did away with divisions,” said Alford about the ACC moving to a 3-5-5 football scheduling model, which starts next season.

“It’s to prepare our conference to have the opportunity to get as many teams in the expanded playoff as possible.”

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The new CFP system will reportedly give bids to the six highest-ranked conference champions. The other six selections will be the highest-ranked at-large teams. The four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four while receiving a first-round bye.

The eight other teams, seeded five through 12, will play each other in the first round. The highest seeds from that group will host the four other teams either on campus or another site that the higher team designates.

Then the quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in bowl games on a rotating basis before the championship will be played at a neutral site.

“There is still a lot to be determined,” Alford said. “But I think the discussions that are going about are the right way to look at things. They still have a lot to iron out. But playing the first round at home, that is a good advantage for the teams.”

The Seminoles have appeared in one CFP, the inaugural edition in 2014. Under this new format, they would have earned CFP bids in 2015 (nine seed playing at eight-seed Notre Dame) and 2016 (11 seed playing at six-seed Michigan).

The potential to host a CFP game certainly is one of the more intriguing elements of the 12-team system.

“It would bring a lot of excitement, of course, a playoff game at home,” Alford said. “The home-field advantage with your fanbase, it would bring a lot of positives for Tallahassee and Leon County. We bring in $100 million in the games that we have to our community.

“To have another home game of that magnitude would be extremely beneficial for us, ourselves and our community partners.”

Last month, the Democrat exclusively sat down with Alford for a three-part Q&A series. For this third edition, Alford covered a variety of topics related to the future of college football, including conference realignment, the revenue gap between conferences and more.

Part I explored Alford’s expectations about the football team this season, while Part II detailed some of his previous and ongoing developments within the athletic department.

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Michael Alford Q&A Part III

At the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce conference at Amelia Island last month, FSU President Richard McCullough talked about keeping the university’s athletics programs competitive. He said at one point, “We are going to be very aggressive.” What do you think he meant by that?

Alford: What we are really talking about is revenue models. That is (deputy athletics director for external operations) Janeen Lalik. … We understand that there is a (revenue) gap. But what do we do to change that gap?

Working with the conference, taking a strong look at various models there of how we are working with our TV partners. How do we change this gap and this narrative? And then looking internally. What practices are we doing internally that we could do ourselves that will help narrow that gap a little bit?

So we will get very aggressive, very competitive in what we are looking at doing. Because we know we have to do things to help shorten that gap.

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More: Florida State AD Michael Alford assesses football team, expectations for 2022 season | Q&A Part I

What was your reaction to USC and UCLA leaving for the Big Ten? Was it a surprise?

Alford: It was a surprise. You have always heard rumors, but I would say that was a surprise, that expansion.

When something of that magnitude happens, what is your response? How do you stay proactive?

Alford: Finding out the conversations that were taking place. Talking to the conference office. Talking to friends across the industry. I used to work at USC at one time. So I know many people still associated with the university out there.

Just kind of get a feel for the decision. How the decision got made. And then really sitting back and saying, ‘OK, what does that mean for the future of Florida State or anyone? What is the next step?’

It is just trying to forecast what is out there. What opportunities are out there. And then working with the conference office as well.

How have you liked the ACC’s response to the USC/UCLA news, and how they have worked with FSU about finding more revenue opportunities and closing the gap?

Alford: We are all looking at different models. We do it ourselves. I can’t speak for the other schools. Commissioner (Jim) Phillips has been very proactive, talking to us and talking to our CEOs. I have belief in him.

I think he’s doing a good job and really working hard to narrow that gap. What that is going to look like, we don’t know yet. But I know he is working every day and every night on it.

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How do you think other conferences perceive FSU?

Alford: You are talking about an institution that is a top 20 academic institution in the country. You look at what President McCullough is doing with the impact that he has had already on that, that is going to be very favorable.

And you look at what we have done with all 20 sports. We compete for national championships. Competing for ACC and national championships in every sport is our goal. Then you look at our draw nationally with the brand. You look at TV numbers, and we are still the top draw in the league. You look nationally when we play and what that means to television contracts.

So I think that when you look at Florida State, you are going to look very favorably because it is a holistic package. We perform well academically as a university. And as an athletic department, we win championships. And we have a national brand. Those are great things to look at.

Nebraska joined the Big Ten as an AAU (Association of American Universities) member in 2011 but has since lost that designation. FSU obviously is not an AAU member. How important do you believe AAU status is today?

Alford: That is hard to say. I know President McCullough has a great plan to get us to AAU status. And he is working very diligently on it and talks about it often. About how the goal is to get to AAU status here at Florida State.

Where do you see college athletics going in five to 10 years?

Alford: It changes every day. If you would have asked me 10 years ago about NIL, I would have said, ‘No way.’ I am very much for NIL and some of the changes going on with student-athletes right now. But doing it in a proper way. I’m a proponent of it.

And the future of college athletics, that is a good question. You are looking at what impact the expansion of the CFP is going to have. You are looking at the impact of that on Title IX. You’ve got to be prepared if we go to a collective bargaining agreement one day, if we do. You read what is going on in California and some other places. And what does that look like?

So you really have your decision tree model of college athletics. And you are just going down as decisions get made of how that impacts you. But making sure that you are prepared at the same time.

One popular theory is that college football will eventually break away from the NCAA. Do you envision that happening?

Alford: It is one thing that you have to take under consideration for the future. And you have to plan accordingly for if it does go down that road of college football breaking away and forming a league or whatever you call it. That is something that you look at and have to be planning for.

It is one of the various models that we work on all the time, trying to forecast, as you mentioned, five to 10 years down the road. What is that going to look like? You really have to prepare for everything.

And how your process is in place, where we open discussions, where you are preparing not only internally but externally as well.

Reach Carter Karels at ckarels@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @CarterKarels. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports) and Instagram (tlhnolesports).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU athletic director Michael Alford talks new CFP format and more