We’ve Already Crossed the Bridge

By Charlie Barnes

Here is why we’re going to be OK despite the insult.

I lived in Memphis for two years in the 1970s. I liked the city, and I gave some support to the Memphis State Tigers football program.

Memphis State and Florida State and five other ‘Southern Independents’ at the time comprised a basketball and baseball league called the METRO 7. Since all seven universities fielded Division I football programs, Commissioners lobbied hard to incorporate football into the Metro Conference. Coach Bobby Bowden made it clear that FSU would not participate.

Mike Norvell coached Memphis from 2016 through 2019. He was supremely successful; he liked them and they liked him. I still get notes occasionally from friends in Memphis mentioning that “FSU stole our coach.”

Cutting us out of the final round of four was a sharp kick in the teeth. None felt it more deeply than Norvell. No one was surprised to learn that the SEC Commissioner spent 48 hours or so lobbying the thirteen members of the CFP Committee. FSU fans unfamiliar with the brazen high-handedness of the outcome were left stunned at their own naïveté.

It’s a hard lesson, hard-earned through the last 100+ years of American college football. Money and power, and the time value of each, help determine some outcomes.

Did the SEC apply pressure to ensure that two of the four teams were SEC, or SEC-bound? Of course, they did. You would expect nothing else. Did the ACC hierarchy engage in lobbying on our behalf? I do not know, but perhaps that’s a subject best left for another day.

The truth is that no one other than we Seminoles care much about our misfortune. We are on our own. Here is the good news: For decades now, powerful tides have been carrying Florida State toward a safe and prosperous harbor. This long progress has remained unnoticed by many casual fans.

Our football program is unique. Only three National Championships have been won by schools that began a football program during the World War II era. Only one school, actually: FSU. All three National Championship trophies and their accompanying Heisman Trophy quarterback trophies are on display in the Moore Center.

In the late 1980s, the increasing demands of a growing program led Seminole Boosters, Inc. to shift focus away from traditional volunteer fund drives, and to concentrate mainly on capital gifts.

The goal of multiple capital campaigns across decades was to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to advance all Seminole sports and to take full advantage of the Bowden Dynasty.

A story had to be crafted to explain the vision, and that vision would become our guide. Supporters needed to understand just where Florida State intended to go, and exactly how we intended to get there.

The Road, The River and The Bridge

I wrote a column many years ago with the purpose of making clear a compelling vision, and with illustrating Florida State’s pathway to greatness. The analogy employed images of a road, a river and a bridge.

Here are some out-takes of that column.

“From the beginning, ours was a scrappy little athletic program, always taking on the giants, and doing well. We were exceptionally lucky - we have always been lucky. I believe you have to be willing to be lucky. You certainly have to be willing to take advantage of your good fortune in order to make the most of it.

“We had few facilities to speak of, and no conference affiliation. What tradition we had carefully nurtured as a young school had taken a beating, and while there had been some spectacular wins, there was as yet no real, enduring record of success.

“When Bobby Bowden arrived, the landscape changed. We were willing to be lucky, and we were lucky to get exactly the right man at precisely the right time in history.

“And the most amazing thing happened: over the years, our perception of ourselves began to change. Instead of just competing with the most prosperous and prestigious programs, we felt that we could become one. We could do for Florida State University what the Irish athletic program had done for Notre Dame. We dreamed that we could actually become a Michigan, or a Southern Cal, or a Penn State or a Nebraska.

“Imagine...Imagine all the great programs of legend. Imagine their journey through history as if it were a road. It's a road laid out straight by great coaches and leaders. They build it as they go, cutting it through a forest of time. The roadbed is layered with winning seasons, and the surface is paved with All-Americans and championships in all sports.

“And so, we Seminoles built our own road. And because we had a helluva road engineer we covered twice the distance in half the time. No other school has built a road that fast.

“We struggled and labored and built and seemed to be coming closer and closer to where the other great programs of legend dwell.

“And then, something happened.

“We hit an obstruction. We suspected it was there all along, but we had never really seen it clearly. It was like a dark bruise on the skyline, a bad cloud. Now, suddenly, it appeared before us.

“Think of that obstruction as a river. Our road runs right up to the river's edge, and stops.

“We can see across. We can see Notre Dame and Michigan and Ohio State and the others. We can see where they live right across the river, and we can see that they are happy, and celebrating, and established.

“Each of them reached the river's edge many years ago, and when they did each one built a bridge. That bridge is the last thing you do to complete the journey. Building that bridge across is the last step to the place where programs of legend dwell, where they can be secure and know that they will have all they need to succeed.

“Yes, we have built a magnificent road, but bridges are different. To build a bridge you have to sink foundations down deep underwater, to the bedrock. And each of the pilings has someone's name on it.

“That bridge is girded with steel; it is where all the scholarships for the entire athletic program are endowed. It is where all the big buildings are finished, and they bear the names of the big donors who built them.

“You've seen some of the names on other campuses. Kenan Stadium at North Carolina. Candler Football Complex at Georgia Tech. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. One generation made Michigan's athletic program unshakable. You can see their names carved on the high pediments of buildings as leaves whip through the crisp fall air.

“Alumnus and football letterman Carl Smith wrote a $25-million check to Virginia to build a first-class stadium. "Beat the Seminoles," you can hear him whisper.

“Coach Bowden, and football, and our loyal and generous Seminole Boosters have brought our entire athletic program up to the river's edge.

“We have a window of time to build that bridge. We have an opportunity to cross over and join the legends, and be secure forever.

“Athletic Director Dave Hart and his staff have done the engineering. They have laid out all the needs. Hart is committed to seeing this through, as are the University President and the entire Seminole Booster leadership.

“The chilling question is: How many others have been left standing at the river's edge? Do you remember when the University of Houston was a powerhouse in football and basketball? Do you remember when Minnesota was taunted as the first team to finish eleventh in the Big 10 after Penn State joined the league?

“Florida State will not be left standing. We will build our bridge and secure the future of our program; I can imagine no other ending to the story.

“We will do this because we embrace a clear vision of where we must go, and because we are willing to work hard to be lucky.

This fall, 2023 I witnessed something as rare as a solar eclipse. All beneath one moon at FSU, our university administration, athletic leadership, Booster officers, and Trustees, all are on the same page. That would be an extraordinary circumstance at any university. With this current team in place, FSU may continue to flourish in even greater measure than we have ever seen.

So, Seminoles, set aside your impulse to despair over the most recent insult. Take confidence in knowing that FSU is already well established on the other side of the river, and in the most upscale neighborhood.

It is the most glamorous neighborhood of all. The streets are glittering with national champions dating from the dawn of the 20th Century. Monumental athletic programs that established themselves as national icons more than 100 years ago line the avenues.

This neighborhood can also be harsh and unforgiving, because high stakes and the demands for success can overwhelm. Life and competition on the shimmering side of the river is not for everyone.

For those who think money and politics – and corruption - have only recently arrived in big-time college athletics, consider that in 1956, Notre Dame’s quarterback was awarded the Heisman despite the team’s 2-8 record. Syracuse’s Jim Brown and Tennessee’s Johnny Majors somehow missed the cut that year. Also missing was National Champion Oklahoma’s sensational halfback Tommy McDonald, star of the Sooners’ third consecutive unbeaten and untied season.

And so it goes, and has always been.

There is an alternative to wrapping ourselves in the garments of the wounded and victimized. We can un-do the struggle of more than four decades, and find ourselves a safe and quiet corner.

We Seminoles always have the option to go back and join the other programs who populated the old Metro Conference along with us.

They are still there. Still proud. You can still see them. Just climb to the top of our magnificent stadium. Scan the horizon of your imagination and you can see them in the distance.

They’re over there, on the other side of the river. Where we used to be.