By Scott Salomon
The Florida State Seminoles, the undefeated Atlantic Coast Conference Champions, were left out of the College Football Playoff Sunday afternoon, and, despite their undefeated record, they had no business being mentioned in the same breath as Alabama.
Alabama is far superior to Florida State and its only blemish was against third-seeded Texas early in the season, in week two. Since then, Alabama has found its playmakers on offense, and have won 10 straight. They also clinched the Southeastern Conference Championship with a 27-24 win over Georgia Saturday afternoon.
Boo Corrigan and his 13-member committee were correct in dropping FSU to number five and one step away from a playoff berth due to the fact that the injury to quarterback Jordan Travis renders FSU’s offense obsolete and they would stand no chance to win a semifinal game against Michigan.
Boo Corrigan, the chair of the College Football Playoff committee, explains why they chose Alabama over Florida State: pic.twitter.com/17yNkBhRuZ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 3, 2023
“Florida State is a different team than they were through the first 11 weeks,” Corrigan said Sunday afternoon. “It was an incredible season. But as you look at who they are as a team right now without Jordan Travis and without the offensive dynamic that he brings to it, they are a different team, and the committee voted Alabama No. 4 and Florida State No. 5.”
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Corrigan added that player availability was a key component to Alabama getting the nod over Florida State.
“Player availability was really important,” Corrigan said. “You could lose a running back. You could lose a wide receiver. But a quarterback as dynamic as Jordan Travis changes their offense in its entirety. That was really a big factor for the committee as we went through everything. I feel horrible for Coach Norvell and the players. They’re a different team now than they were earlier in the year. It’s been a long couple of days.”
My colleague Kyle Golik wrote that Florida State got screwed over. I disagree. The committee was supposed to vote for the best four teams in the country as of December 3, 2023. Right now, Florida State is not one of them. Unfortunately, the broken leg that Travis suffered against North Alabama derailed the Seminoles from their national title hopes. Tate Rodemaker is just not good enough to run Florida State’s normal high-octane offense.
Golik is not the only one to think that FSU got the short end of the stick. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a candidate for the Republican nomination of the President of the United States, took time from his campaign to issue a Tweet on the matter.
What we learned today is that you can go undefeated and win your conference championship game, but the College Football Playoff committee will ignore these results.
Congratulations to @FSUFootball on an outstanding season and winning the ACC championship!
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) December 3, 2023
Florida State was having to rely on the Wildcat formation in the ACC Championship game against Louisville as its passing game was rendered ineffective with true freshman Brock Glenn, who took the reigns from Tate Rodemaker, who sat out due to a concussion that he sustained last week against Florida.
However, the committee did get it right and it put the best four teams in the country in the Playoff.
Corrigan added, “Again, Florida State, great year. Really hard for everyone down there, but the injury to Jordan Travis is something that in the eyes of the committee changed them as a team. Rodemaker and Brock Glenn came in, but they are a different team with Jordan Travis on the field.”
Alabama, the team that took Florida State’s position as the fourth-seed, is fully loaded on both sides of the ball. Their offense is fully functional and quarterback Jalen Milroe is performing at an all-time high. When he was benched earlier in the season against the University of South Florida for Tyler Buchner, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him.
He came back like a man possessed and has been doing whatever he needs to do to see that his offense moves the ball down the field and has an opportunity to score. Clutch move by Nick Saban, who played his cards perfectly. Since the USF game, Milroe has been dealing like he worked in Vegas for years.
Milroe has found his stride with receivers like Isaiah Bond and Jermaine Burton. Please refer to the 4th and 31 against Auburn in the Iron Bowl where Bond caught the game winner with under a minute to play. Bond had another big game in the SEC Championship Game where he came up with another big grab on 4th and 17.
Corrigan also referred to Alabama’s strength of schedule as a factor in putting them ahead of Florida State.
“Alabama’s strength of schedule was significantly higher than Florida State’s, but again, it’s two really good teams.”
Earlier in the week I had said that Florida State would end up out of the playoff and that Texas was more worthy of their number four spot. Texas will be seeded third and, well, Florida State is out.
Condolences to Florida State. They were fantastic. But blame no further than TCU! If they hadn’t gotten destroyed 65-7 in a nat’l title game last year, things may have been different. But we don’t need the potential of another slaughter because FSU doesn’t have a QB. Could not…
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) December 3, 2023
“We went over it 6-8 times,” Corrigan said. “Each person spoke about where they were. There was never a rushed moment. We just wanted to make sure we got it right, which is why we came back again this morning and went through all of it again. We had eight really good teams this year. It was somewhat of a unique year in the last year of the four.”
If it is any consolation, Florida State will represent the Atlantic Coast Conference in the December 30th Orange Bowl Classic against sixth-ranked Georgia, who lost their Conference Championship Game to Alabama. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
The Seminoles are 5-5 all-time in the Orange Bowl game with a win over Michigan in their most recent appearance in 2016. FSU has faced Georgia twice in bowl games – the 1984 Citrus Bowl and the 2003 Sugar Bowl after the 2002 season.
