Report: Florida State reports $437 million in athletics-related debt in 2025

Florida State reported $437 million in athletics-related debt in fiscal year 2025, Sportico’s Daniel Libit reported. That’s an increase of $200 million and 71% of FSU’s total debt for the fiscal year.

FSU deputy athletics director Josh Turner told Sportico the surge is due to revenue bonds set to help fund renovations at Doak Campbell Stadium and construction for a new football operations center. All told, Florida State University reported $617 million in institutional debt.

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The athletics department spent $208 million in FY25 – a 22.6% increase. For comparison, the department spent $169.8 million in FY24 and marks an increase of roughly 38% over a four-year window.

FSU’s athletics-related debt is more than any public FBS program reported in fiscal year 2024. It notably topped Cal, which hit $432 million in athletics debt in FY24.

Florida State also reported $33.9 million in direct institutional support for athletics during FY25, compared to $107,337 in the previous fiscal year. Speaking with Sportico, Turner said it was to support Title IX initiatives, as well as legal fees for ACC-related litigation.

Florida State and Clemson were at the forefront of a legal battle with the ACC as both schools challenged the conference’s grant of rights. They ultimately came to a settlement agreement in March 2025, paving the way for a new revenue distribution model with the conference.

A majority share – 60% – of the base media rights will be placed into a viewership pool to be distributed via a TV ratings-based model, the settlement terms said. It officially took effect with the 2025 season.

Additionally, the exit fees changed. If a school was to leave the ACC in 2025-26, it would owe $165 million. That number drops to $147 million in 2026-27, $129 million in 2027-28 and $111 million in 2028-29. After it hits $93 million in 2029-30, schools would owe a $75 million exit fee from 2030-2036.

“I’m proud of where we’ve where we’ve landed,” said Florida State trustee and former Seminoles quarterback Drew Weatherford, in part, at the time. “We made some commitments 14 months ago that we would do everything in our power to ensure that we could compete at the highest level.

“I think we’ve done that here. We also made it clear that we were willing to seek a new home if something drastically didn’t change. But the good news is that things have drastically changed since we had that conversation – for our benefit – and there’s been a lot of work done.”