David Pollack calls Florida State keeping Mike Norvell 'a business decision'

By this point, Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell is getting used to being on the hot seat. That pressure has been very real all season, though likely lessened a bit with the announcement that he’ll be returning to coach Florida State again in 2026.

Analyst David Pollack suspects he knows why Mike Norvell is coming back in 2026. He explained on See Ball Get Ball that it’s a business decision that the Seminoles are making.

“Speaking of business, Mike Norvell, FSU,” David Pollack said. “They make a business decision, they announce their timing now, they announce they’re going to keep him. I think there’s plenty of factors that goes into this. FSU is probably frustrated because I think just ask yourself as an FSU fan, like are we trying to get to the next level and get a great coach? I thought this was really, really interesting because when you ask that question, like, are we good enough, this is Norvell’s sixth season. In the five seasons he’s completed, three seasons he didn’t make a bowl. Then, to add that ’22, ’23 run where 23-4, ACC Champs, should’ve been in the Playoff, got absolutely hosed. So, what the heck happened?”

There have been stretches of success for Norvell at Florida State. In particular, the 2023 and 2024 seasons that Pollack mentioned. However, since then, the Seminoles have gone just 7-16, including a two-win season last year.

One challenge to firing Mike Norvell is his buyout, though. It’s been reported that Florida State would owe Norvell roughly $58.4 million if the school fired him. That number drops to $45.6 million at the end of next season.

“A couple things to keep in mind about FSU. One, you just gave your facilities a facelift, which was much needed. It was much needed. But, when you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a facelift,” Pollack said. “To do all that stuff around the program, to make it look better, that’s a lot of money you’re spending. Now, you’d have to go pay the second biggest buyout in the history of college football. Second biggest buyout. Like, if you paid Norvell $50 something million to go away, only the previous FSU coach… Jimbo Fisher‘s buyout is higher, at [Texas] A&M, not at Florida State.”

Ultimately, there are other costs to running a program and only so much money. So, like several other schools have seemingly decided, within this new era of revenue sharing, Florida State is going to spend on the roster, rather than a coaching change. So, from that perspective, it’s a business decision to keep Norvell.

“But I think that here’s what FSU is doing,” Pollack said. “I think they like their recruiting class. They’ve got a good recruiting class, but FSU is spending money on the front office. FSU is spending money on the scouting department. They’re going to try to get better around the coach. The world has changed so much in this new era… I think FSU is investing in the front office, investing in scouting, investing in players.”

Ultimately, the goal at Florida State is to compete for national championships. That’s a standard that Mike Norvell will need to get to soon or risk having the math change.