Florida State Seminoles


The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I, primarily competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference for all sports since the 1991–92 season; within the Atlantic Division in any sports split into a divisional format since the 2005–06 season.
The Seminoles' athletic department currently fields 18 varsity teams, including programs for both men and women. They have collectively won 21 team national championships and over 100 team conference championships, as well as numerous individual national and conference titles.
The athletic department is led by athletic director Michael Alford, who reports to FSU President Richard D. McCullough and the Board of Trustees.

Overview

Florida State Athletics were founded in 1902 when the then-Florida State College football teams played three seasons. The 1905 Buckman Act reorganized the existing seven Florida colleges into three institutions, segregated by race and gender. As a result of this reorganization, the coeducational Florida State College was renamed the Florida State College for Women. The Florida State University again became a co-ed institution in 1947 with most of the newly enrolled male students back from service in World War II. Athletic programs resumed and Florida State fielded its first football team in 43 years with FSU facing Stetson on October 18, 1947.
Florida State was a founding member of the Dixie Conference, in 1948, when other southern institutions sought to create a "purely amateur" athletic conference based on the principle of complete amateurism, with no athletic scholarships. Three years later, Florida State left the conference to become an independent, having won ten conference titles including three in football and two in men's track and field.
In 1976, Florida State joined the Metro Conference for all sports except football, which remained independent. For fifteen years FSU competed and won sixty-eight conference titles as well as five national titles including two in softball, two in women's track and field, and one in women's golf.
Since 1991, Florida State has been a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Since joining the conference, FSU has won ninety-six ACC titles and nine national titles including three in football, three in men's track and field, two in soccer, and one in softball. After the 2005 conference expansion was finished, FSU was placed in the newly formed Atlantic Division. The ACC discontinued divisions in 2023.
Florida State's school colors of garnet and gold are a merging of the university's past. In 1904 and 1905, the Florida State College won football championships wearing purple and gold uniforms. When FSC became Florida State College for Women in 1905, the FSCW student body selected crimson as the official school color. The administration in 1905 took crimson and combined it with the recognizable purple of the championship football teams to achieve the color garnet. The garnet and gold colors were first used on an FSU uniform in a 14–6 loss to Stetson on October 18, 1947.
On April 11, 2014, as part of the university's rebranding of the program, white and black were added to the official school colors. The addition of the two colors is to better represent the colors present on the flag of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Florida State also uses turquoise on special occasions in various sports to honor the Seminole Tribe as the color represents "harmony, friendship, and fellowship" within Native American culture.

Mascot

History

The name "Seminoles" was chosen by students in 1947 on a vote, it alludes to Florida's Seminole people who in the early nineteenth century resisted efforts of the United States government to remove them from Florida. Since 1978 the teams have been represented by the symbols Osceola and Renegade. The symbol represents an actual historical figure, Seminole war leader Osceola, whose clothing represents appropriate period dress. The athletic logo, in use since the early 1970s, shows a profile of a shouting Seminole warrior in circle. The model for the logo was Florida State music faculty member Thomas Wright, composer of the Florida State University Fight Song and Victory Song.
The university maintains that they do not officially have a mascot, but use the Seminole name in "admiration" of the unconquered tribe. However, the figures of Osceola and Renegade, as well as the athletic logo, are used in a way that is indistinguishable from other mascots; they are used to rally the crowd at sporting events, and emblazoned on T-shirts and other merchandise.
Renegade and Osceola are reserved for football games; therefore, the Seminoles use a different symbol for other athletic events. This symbol, referred to by the university as an "ambassador" rather than a mascot, is an anthropomorphic horse named Cimarron. The name Cimarron comes from a term used by Spanish colonizers to describe independent indigenous tribes.

Controversy

The use of names and images associated with Seminole history is officially sanctioned by the Seminole Tribal Council of Florida. In 2005, the Tribal Council produced a written resolution affirming their support for the use of their symbolism, and FSU states that they take pride in their "continued collaboration with the tribe".
In 2005, the NCAA adopted a policy intended to prevent their schools and athletic programs from using mascots and imagery that are "hostile or abusive" to racial and ethnic minorities. This included Native American mascots, and FSU was specifically flagged by the NCAA as a university with potentially offensive imagery. However, Florida State challenged the policy and was granted a waiver based on their "unique relationship" with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. The NCAA allows the use even though the NCAA "continues to believe the stereotyping of Native Americans is wrong."
Though the Florida Seminole Tribal Council made this agreement, they only represent Florida's portion of the Seminole people. In 2013, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, which has about four times as many registered members as Florida's Seminole tribe, passed a resolution condemning the use of such imagery on sports teams, making no exception for the kind of agreement FSU made with the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Their statement reads, "the use of American Indian mascots, images, and religious symbols is harmful to all children, and is discriminatory to Native cultures, Native imagery, and violates religious icons". The American Psychological Association has made similar statements about the negative effects of Indigenous mascots, arguing that they promote stereotypes, establish a hostile environment, and undermine the Nations' ability to accurately represent their culture. Students and other members of the Florida State community have also argued against the use of Native imagery, posting about it on school blogs and starting a Change.org petition in August 2021 to "ban racist traditions at FSU".

Rivalries

Florida State maintains two traditional rivalries in all sports with the Florida Gators and the Miami Hurricanes. Florida State is the only school in the state to play both Florida and Miami each year in all sports.
Florida State developed a football rivalry with Clemson after joining the Atlantic Coast Conference. Tommy Bowden was named the head coach at Clemson prior to the 1999 season, and with his father Bobby Bowden the head coach at Florida State, the game was nicknamed the Bowden Bowl for the duration of his tenure.
Florida State University was founded with money donated by Francis Eppes VII, a grandson of Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and founder of the University of Virginia. As a result, both teams play for the Jefferson-Eppes Trophy in football. With the realignment of the ACC, the Seminoles and Cavaliers found themselves in different divisions and no longer play annually.
Florida State has baseball rivalries with its traditional opponents, as well as with the Jacksonville University Dolphins.

Athletic directors

Florida State has had 17 athletic directors in its history.
Florida State University sponsors teams in eight men's and eleven women's NCAA sanctioned sports, generally as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Florida State competes as a member of the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association in beach volleyball.

Baseball

Florida State's baseball program is one of the most successful in collegiate sports, having been to twenty-four College World Series in sixty-one Tournament appearances, and having appeared in the national championship final on three occasions,.
Under the command of Head Coach No. 11 Mike Martin for forty years, Florida State is the second-winningest program in the history of college baseball. Since 1990, the Seminoles have had more 50 win seasons, been to more NCAA Tournaments and finished in the top 10 more than any other team in the country. Since 2000, FSU is the winningest program in college baseball with more victories and a higher winning percentage in the regular season than any other school. Despite their success, Florida State is still chasing their first CWS Championship, and has the most appearances in the CWS of any program yet to win a national title.
NCAA CWS appearances1957, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1970. 1975, 1980, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2017, 2019, 2024
ACC tournament champions1995, 1997, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2015, 2017, 2018
ACC regular-season champions1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2012
ACC Atlantic Division Champions2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014