ACC program leads nation in athletic debt for 2025 financial year
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
College athletics is big business across the United States. That’s especially true at Florida State.
In fact, the ACC program led the country in athletic-related debt during the 2025 fiscal year.
According to a report from Sportico’s Daniel Libit, FSU currently has an eye-popping $437 million in debt related to athletics. That’s $200 million more than it reported for 2024.
Why so much? It’s due in part to renovations coming to Doak Campbell Stadium.
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.
All told, the university’s total debt number was $617 million. That tells you just how large a piece of the pie athletics is at FSU.
Libit goes on to say that while Florida State leads the nation in athletics-based debt, one of its fellow ACC programs has been atop the heap “for much of the last decade.” That’s Cal, whose athletic debt figure was $432 million. That’s partially due to renovations that took place at California Memorial Stadium in 2012.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
