Florida State Athletics appears to be moving in the right direction. Not just on the football field but also in multiple other sports. A lot of that can be attributed to Athletic Director, Michael Alford, who was hired by the program last December following a stint as the CEO and President of Seminole Boosters.
On Monday, Action Network's Brett McMurphy reported that Alford is an early candidate for the open Mississippi State Athletic Director position. A few of the other names mentioned by McMurphy included Georgia Southern AD Jared Benko, Mississippi State deputy AD Eric George, Eastern Michigan AD Scott Wetherbee, and San Diego State AD John David Wicker.
The Bulldogs' previous AD, John Cohen, is in the process of being hired by Auburn. The Tigers fired head coach Bryan Harson earlier Monday.
Alford's link to Mississippi State is that he's a former student-athlete for the program. He signed with the Bulldogs out of high school and played one season of collegiate baseball before transferring to UAB to finish out his career. Alford earned his bachelor's degree from UAB in 1993 and his master's from Arkansas in 1995.
During his 26 years in intercollegiate athletics and professional sports, Alford has held positions with the Dallas Cowboys, the University of Alabama, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Southern California, the Cincinnati Bengals and was Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics at Central Michigan University from 2017-2020.
While he was President and CEO of the Seminole Boosters, Alford's leadership helped the organization add over 2,000 new annual members, raised $15 million towards a new football operations center bringing the total commitments to over $55 million, and conceived and launched concepts to dramatically improve the fan experience at Doak Campbell Stadium.
Alford signed a five year/$5 million contract with Florida State in December 2021. Among his feats with the Seminoles, he's acquired new head coaches for the baseball (Link Johnson), soccer (Brian Pensky), and women's basketball (Brooke Wyckoff) programs.
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