Analytics have played a significant part in Alford’s career, from working in NFL front offices with the Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys to more recent stops at Alabama, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Southern California and Central Michigan.
Even now, as Florida State’s new athletics director, Alford finds himself surrounded by data. It’s front and center on a massive monitor in his office. As he calls it, this hustle board constantly provides up-to-the-minute fundraising figures, everything from the number of phone calls, emails or meetings with donors to the latest fundraising figures.
“It’s the old baseball player in me — stats don’t lie,” Alford told the Orlando Sentinel.