8. Florida State Seminoles
The expectation here is that Florida State departs from the ACC and join the SEC or Big Ten in the next few years, strengthening its financials and national impact across the board. Now, if that doesn’t happen, this is not a top 10 job. There’s two other ACC gigs that border on the top 10, Clemson and Miami, but neither feels like it has the staying power that Florida State will when it’s able get into a new media rights deal in another league and continue its upward trajectory under Mike Norvell. He turned this thing around quickly, too, going from consecutive losing seasons to a 10-3 finish in 2022 leading to last year’s perfect regular season and ACC Championship.
Norvell mastered transfer portal recruiting and a hastened approach at development of those signees. The same can’t be said at Clemson, whose focus on the portal under Dabo Swinney is minuscule, and at Miami, where big-time spending in NIL hasn’t yet resulted in a difference-making — or program-altering — season. Florida State is currently the best job in Florida and the only way that changes beyond 2024 is if Billy Napier starts moving the Gators in the right direction with his top 10 class.
