FSU football: Smaller ACC schools don’t understand what ‘Brand’ means

FSU football is the villain again. They have a top-10 preseason ranking, and according to some ACC schools, they are sabotaging the conference because they voted “No” when the ACC voted to add Stanford and California.

So, it’s sabotage when FSU votes to do something that helps them but doesn’t help you? Couldn’t I say those schools were looking to sabotage FSU’s exit from the ACC by voting to expand for schools that literally offer nothing to the ACC from a revenues standpoint?

One of the craziest things I’ve read is below:

It’s funny. I wonder which ACC schools question the brand and marketability of FSU. It would be really easy to disprove the numbers if that were the case. However, there’s a reason FSU has opened the last two seasons in primetime against Notre Dame (averaged 7.1 million viewers) and LSU (averaged 7.5 million viewers).

There’s a reason FSU will open the 2023 season against LSU in prime time in a game that will crush TV ratings again. There’s a reason FSU had multiple primetime games in 2022. A school like Wake Forest doesn’t move the needle. I’m only pointing that school out because they have been one of the more vocal regarding FSU wanting to exit the ACC. They came out with some ridiculous numbers touting the fasting-growing brand in the ACC.

The math ain’t mathing. Wake Forest doesn’t even have 100,000 living alumni. Wake Forest averages fewer than 30,000 for home games. I live less than two hours from Winston-Salem and never see anyone with a WF shirt, decal, hat, or anything. I probably see more FSU signage. The One defensive mechanism Wake Forest folk like to go to when getting smoked in debates is, did you graduate from FSU?

And there lies the point they all miss. The power of the brand of FSU. When did you have to attend a school to become a fan of the team? I know tons of Dallas Cowboys fans that don’t live in Texas. The Cowboys haven’t been good since the 90s and are still one of the most recognizable teams in the NFL.

There are not 2.7 million people in this world identifying as Wake Forest fans. If that were the case, their TV ratings would be much higher. Also, the TV ratings they brag about skew because they get to play FSU football and Clemson each year. A prime example is the FSU/Wake Forest game. That 3:30 p.m. game averaged 2.48 million in 2022. A 3:30 p.m. game between in-state rival Wake Forest/North Carolina only averaged 610,000.

This is the entire gripe FSU has with how the ACC distributes funds. Aside from Clemson, the FSU brand dwarfs the rest of these ACC schools. A side note, is I’m not sure Clemson would maintain its current stature without Dabo Swinney as head coach.

If Clemson got a new head coach next year and were mediocre, would they maintain their current status? I have my doubts. FSU maintained its brand under multiple coaches, whether they were good or bad on the field in recent years, with great TV ratings. That, my friends, is the definition of a national brand.