Shot:

Chaser:

Let’s take a moment and focus on the fact that FSU goes all-in on NIL with nothing to show for it (I’m assuming that’s where at least some of that deficit is coming from) while UGA doesn’t. But how did FSU really get in that hole?

First:

In a phone interview, Josh Turner, FSU’s deputy athletics director and chief finance officer, said the increase stems primarily from revenue bonds issued to fund renovations for Doak Campbell Stadium and the construction of a new football operations center, as well as debt service associated with earlier projects backed by FSU’s athletic booster organizations.

Okay, sounds like a legitimate one-off and attempts to improve facilities over the same period of time. That tracks.

Second:

Meanwhile, athletics spending at FSU also surged. Total expenditures rose 22.6% from FY24 to FY25, reaching $208.2 million, a period that coincided with the university suing the Atlantic Coast Conference in the hopes of joining a more lucrative league.

Roughly 16% of its expenditures were covered by campus subsidies—$33.9 million in direct institutional support and an additional $8.6 million via student fees. This kind of funding is atypical for FSU. In FY24, the school reported just $107,337 in direct institutional funds going to athletics. Outside of the COVID-affected FY22, when the department received $13.6 million from the university, the largest prior contribution from main campus was $1.66 million in 2018-19.

Turner told Sportico that the institutional funding was used to support Title IX initiatives, athlete-related expenses and legal fees tied to the ACC litigation. He added that enhanced accounting and new reporting practices also impacted the numbers.

Ah, so here we go…let’s blame it on the women’s volleyball team, while really it can be also associated with serving, setting, and spiking lawsuits down your Conference’s throat. That sounds like a great plan, let’s see how that works out in the end.

And then, the icing on the cake:

In June, FSU became the first school to take advantage of a new state law enabling schools in Florida to shift funds from other campus sources to athletics to cover athlete revenue-share payments provided for in the House v. NCAA settlement.

Tell us again why it’s a bad thing for Kirby to be frugal with his NIL money?

In truth, it seems like Kirby might be a big spender, but more to retain the guys he recruited while not flaunting it with unproven portal players or the next bright shiny QB toy that’s fresh out of high school. Vanderbilt ponied up $2 million for Jared Curtis, and gets to bring their new toy to Athens next year in what I’m sure will be a rude awakening for the very rich frosh on October 3rd. By that time, he will have faced the likes of Austin Peay, Delaware (hey, don’t sleep on the Blue Hens to pull something off here), NC State at home, and Auburn on the road. Poor kid may not see anything the likes of pure Georgia Bulldog resentment ever again in his life, as we are steeped in schaudenfreude and passionate pettiness for things like this.

Not sure how that turned into a screed about Curtis, but let’s just say it’s nice we aren’t keeping up with the NIL Joneses like FSU if this is the end result…lousy weekend experiences and mountains of debt. Sounds like someone’s description of their ex-wife.