The announcement of the four teams in the College Football Playoff has had America in an uproar for the last 48 hours.
For the first time since the CFP started in 2014, an undefeated Power Five conference champion, Florida State, was left out of the final four teams. There are many reasons why people believe the Seminoles were left out, but the majority of fans feel that Mike Norvell’s team was wronged.
Two things can be true at the same time: The Seminoles were wronged, but the committee got it right.
The conversation of FSU being left out of the playoff or their status being debatable started before Jordan Travis got hurt, but that devastating injury to their quarterback certainly made that conversation more real. While the injury to a key player has never truly been a factor before, it’s definitely a point in the committee’s criteria.
Principles from the website of the College Football Playoff include: “conference championships won, strength of schedule, head-to-head, common opponents, and other factors, including unavailability of key players and coaches that may have affected a team during the season or its postseason performance.”
As it states on the website, the committee looks at the status of players like Travis every year, this is just the first time that it has helped lead to such a massive decision.
But the other big part of this that not many people are discussing is that Florida State’s resume simply wasn’t as good as Alabama or Texas. When you look at the season the Seminoles had, they opened with a win over LSU, which you could say is a good win. Beyond that, it’s hard to find a win over a quality opponent in 2023. Clemson is not the same team they have been in recent years, Florida failed to make a bowl game, they nearly lost to a 6-6 Boston College team, and struggled to beat Louisville in the ACC title game. Alabama got the best win out of anybody in America when they defeated Georgia in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday, and some would argue it wasn’t as close as the score showed. Then, Texas went into Tuscaloosa and beat Alabama by double digits en route to winning the Big 12 title in dominating fashion over a ranked opponent in Oklahoma State.
Resume goes back to strength of schedule as a key component as well, because being the conference champion washes out in the argument between Florida State, Alabama, and Texas because they all won their respective conferences. Alabama went into Selection Sunday with the fifth highest SOS in the country, Texas was at 13, and Florida State was 55th. Florida State does have the 3rd highest strength of record, but Alabama and Texas were right behind at four and five, so when you factor the two together, the Longhorns and the Crimson Tide had better resumes than the Seminoles.
“It’s a factor. It’s a factor, and it’s part of our protocol, as we look at it,” College Football Playoff committee chair Boo Carrigan said when asked if strength of schedule was a factor in the decision to leave Florida State out of the playoff. “Again, Alabama’s strength of schedule was significantly higher than Florida State’s, but again, it’s two really good teams. You can only play the teams in front of you, et cetera, but at the end of it, just the difference in their offense, and defense is wonderful, the special teams, the job that Coach Norvell has done this year is very admirable, but everyone has got great respect for the job that he’s done. But we ended up with Alabama at 4 and Florida State at 5.”
Florida State may be the first undefeated conference champ to be left out of the CFP, but this isn’t the first instance where an undefeated team missed the national title. Back in 1992, Florida State made the national championship game in place of an undefeated West Virginia team out of the Big East. Then, in 2004, an undefeated SEC Champion in Auburn was left out of the national championship game, a situation that many believe began the process of getting away from the BCS system. That Tommy Tuberville-led team is still referred to as the greatest team to not win a national title.
A more recent example, in the College Football Playoff, was in 2016 when Penn State, an 11-2 Big 10 Champion, was left out of the playoff as Ohio State, a team the Nittany Lions beat and didn’t even play in the conference title game, made it as the #3 seed and was demolished 31-0 by Clemson.
All of these stats and instances drive home the simple fact: the College Football Playoff committee felt that Florida State without Jordan Travis would not create a great matchup with any of the teams that had already been decided. Now, Brock Glenn wouldn’t have been the starting quarterback for the ‘Noles in the CFP because Tate Rodemaker was nearly cleared for the ACC title game. However, even Rodemaker doesn’t, at least on paper, give Florida State a great chance at a national title. This committee had to put the best two semifinal matchups together, especially with so many semifinal blowouts in recent years.
The committee also knew they could set a precedent in 2023 with the playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s part of it as well.
In the end, Florida State deserved to be in the College Football Playoff, but so did the four teams that made it in. In the eyes of the committee, they were the fifth-best team on the list, which I agree with considering everything that has happened over the last month of the college football season.
Matt Miguez is the host of the Miguez Mindset Podcast on ESPN Southwest Louisiana’s YouTube channel. He is also a digital contributor for ESPN 103.7 Lafayette and 104.1 Lake Charles.