At the end of last season, when Florida State’s administration decided to bring head coach Mike Norvell back for his seventh year, I wrote about how the school continues to throw good money after bad. With NIL and pay-for-play now the norm in collegiate athletics, getting the most value out of a contract is almost as important as wins and losses. Even Norvell said that himself at the end of last season at John Garrett’s introductory press conference.
“In years past, it used to be who had the talent
to play here, and then you would go and recruit them. Now, you’re placing a value on what the individual is. Does this guy have the talent to play at Florida State? Alright, well, what is the value of that individual?”
According to The Athletic’s head coach and quarterback tiers, the Noles are not getting a strong return on investment.
On Tuesday, The Athletic released its head coaching tiers and placed Norvell in the fifth tier, a two-tier drop from 2024. Norvell, the 11th-highest-paid coach in college football, was obviously the most expensive coach in the group that featured JMU’s Billy Napier, Boston College’s Bill O’Brien, and Colorado’s Deion Sanders. After Norvell and Sanders, who each make $10 million or more, the next-highest-paid coach in the tier was Virginia’s Tony Elliott, at $4.7 million and the 50th-highest salary. It does not take an economics degree to see that the names in this tier and the salary being paid to Norvell do not match.
But in FSU’s decision to retain Norvell in 2026, the program still invested an impressive chunk of change into the roster, over $20 million, according to CBS Sports last week. While obviously not one of the most expensive rosters in the sport, that number will trump most of the ACC. The issue is that the way FSU decided to spend that money could be a problem.
A few weeks before the coaching tiers release, The Athletic also dropped its CFB QB rankings and slotted Ashton Daniels, the Seminoles’ starter, also in tier five and ranked 60th, behind FAU’s Caden Veltkamp.
Norvell and Garrett, FSU’s de facto general manager, decided not to invest in the quarterback decision as much as they should have, according to the rankings from The Athletic and On3’s NIL player valuation.On3 listed Daniels with a $1 million valuation. However, during the offseason, Florida State brought multiple other signal-callers on campus, including DJ Lagway (Baylor/ $2 million valuation) and Anthony Colandrea (Nebraska/ $2 million valuation). It’s unclear whether Lagway or Colandrea will work, but they are each slotted into the fourth tier of QBs and ranked 18 to 21 slots higher than Daniels.
However, even though Florida State went cheap at QB, they invested heavily in skill positions. Duce Robinson, named to the All-ACC preseason team, also earned a $1 million valuation. Running back ‘Tre Wisner, a transfer from Texas, was tagged at $650K. Amazingly, though, Florida State did not shore up the offensive line in ways that one would expect for a team that wants to open up the playbook. Left tackle Xavier Chaplin, a transfer from Auburn, was only listed at $700K, just $50K more than Wisner, who should split time with a more talented back, Ousmane Kromah. After practice on Wednesday, offensive line coach Herb Hand still seemed unsure who the starting five would be when asked by the local Tallahassee media.
“Every day you have guys that show up a little bit better and some guys, maybe, don’t have the best practice. That can be fluid at times. So, I think we’re getting there. We’ll be fine by the time we get ready to kick it off.”
On a larger scale, the issue facing Florida State’s administration is no longer a question about wins and losses, but about value. Even if the Seminoles surprise the general public and go 8-4, Marcus Freeman gets paid $300K less and should lead Notre Dame into the College Football Playoff this year.
The decision to keep Norvell in charge of the roster was a calculated risk by athletic director Michael Alford and his supervisors. For 2026 to be a success, the head coach not only has to prove his worth on the field, but also that the dollar figure next to his name deserves to be there.
