Florida State Seminoles fans aren't going to want to hear this, but the College Football Playoff committee got it right with their final four teams.
The CFP committee announced on Saturday afternoon that Texas and Alabama secured the final two spots in the Playoff, leaving out Florida State and Georgia in the process. It certainly wasn't an easy decision for the committee, but based on what we had seen over the past couple of weeks, it was the right one for the sake of a competitive field for the final four teams competing for a national title.
The Longhorns deservedly earned the No. 3 seed after a dominant one-loss season, with their only loss coming in the Red River Rivalry against their bitter rival in the Oklahoma Sooners. Their resume included a win over Alabama in a hostile environment, and their high-powered offense featuring Quinn Ewers, Adonai Mitchell, and Xavier Worthy was firing on all cylinders in a dominant 49-21 Big 12 Championship win.
On top of the high-powered offense and strong resume, the Texas defense boasts two of the best defensive linemen in the country in Byron Murphy and T'Vondre Sweat. With how much they've been clicking on both sides of the ball in recent weeks, along with that statement win over Alabama earlier in the year, it was always going to be tough for the CFP committee to leave the Longhorns out of the final four.
Despite a slow start to the season, the Crimson Tide showed the CFP committee enough over the final few games to earn that final spot. After being benched earlier this season, quarterback Jalen Milroe developed into a legitimate starter for the Crimson Tide, and their win over the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC Championship did enough to impress the committee.
Nick Saban has delivered another masterclass of a season to get his team back into the College Football Playoff, and given the team's success against top-ranked opponents, the committee clearly felt that they had a much stronger chance to compete against the No. 1 Michigan Wolverines compared to the Seminoles.
Bama is coming ?? pic.twitter.com/Suysw2KV9b
— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) December 3, 2023
As for Florida State, it's understandably heartbreaking for their team and fanbase. A 13-0 season topped off with an ACC Championship shows that Florida State did everything within their power to earn a spot in the College Football Playoff. In fact, the Seminoles are the first team ever in the 10-year history of the CFP to be left out with an undefeated record and a Power Five conference title.
Unfortunately, the circumstances around the team are what kept them out of the Playoff. The Seminoles lost their Heisman frontrunner in Jordan Travis to a devastating injury, and the backup quarterbacks in Tate Rodemaker and Brock Glenn struggled to move the ball effectively in two ugly wins against Florida Louisville.
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit shared his thoughts on the decision to leave Florida State out.
Unfortunately significant injuries impact teams as much as head to head matchups and conference championships. You can?t ignore the impact the loss of Jordan Travis had on the Noles. Sucks..but big part of a teams final evaluation https://t.co/lRuq92gQHu
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 3, 2023
At the end of the day, the CFP committee showed that they don't make their decisions based off which teams are most deserving. If that was the case, then there would have been no question about Florida State making this year's College Football Playoff.
Instead, the committee stuck to their beliefs that the four best teams in college football should compete for the national title, and although the Seminoles had a magical year, they felt that the Crimson Tide stood a better chance of competing with the likes of Michigan, Washington, and Texas. A Florida State team led by a backup quarterback likely wasn't going to be able to hang with Jim Harbaugh's Wolverines, and Vegas oddsmakers don't even feel confident about them playing against a sixth-ranked Bulldogs team.
Projected Orange Bowl point spread via @_Collin1
Georgia -12 Florida State
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 3, 2023
It absolutely stinks for Florida State fans. The only bright side for the reigning ACC Champions is that there will be hope of them making it back into the CFP when the playoff is expanded to 12 teams.
