Was Florida State Robbed of the College Football Playoff?

Imagine you are a Florida State fan right before the College Football Playoff Selection Show. You just watched your team go undefeated and win the ACC with a 13-0 record. Injuries happen, but they should surely make the playoffs, right? Not according to the College Football Playoff committee, which seems to be deciding who’s worthy of the playoff. Especially in recent times with NIL and the transfer portal, teams can be drastically changed in a matter of days, with players leaving for the NFL or transferring because they didn’t have the opportunity to play in the playoffs. In this case, Florida State seemed to lose their entire starting lineup ahead of the Capital One Orange Bowl, where they played #6 Georgia to lose by a bowl record 60 points (63-3).

To get to this point, Florida State had to win statement games against #5 LSU, led by the eventual Heisman Trophy winner, Jayden Daniels, Clemson in a thriller in Death Valley, and rival Florida while starting backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker. You may ask yourself why Florida State would play a backup against a rival while pushing for a playoff spot. The answer to that is starting quarterback and leader of the team, Jordan Travis, went down with a gruesome leg injury against FCS opponent, North Alabama, that sidelined him for the remainder of the season. This meant Rodemaker had to come in and beat rival Florida, which he did, but he also suffered a concussion that would eventually end his season as a Seminole. With a bad quarterback situation worsening, head coach Mike Norvell had to look to their third-string quarterback, Brock Glenn, to lead the Seminoles over Louisville to win the ACC. Looking back, it is safe to say that Florida State did not play their best, with Glenn only having 55 passing yards and less than 50% completion percentage. However, the defense stepped up to have the Seminoles win 16-6 and be crowned as an undefeated Power 5 champion. With the College Football Playoff Selection Show airing the next day, the team felt accomplished and had done everything they could to earn a spot in the playoff. Despite all this, the College Football Playoff Committee decided it was not enough and instead chose the 12-1 SEC Champion, Alabama.

Other than winning the SEC over Georgia, Alabama had only two other statement games: they beat #14 LSU 42-28 (they did not beat them as badly as Florida State did) and #15 Ole Miss 24-10. In fact, Alabama appeared to be in trouble at the start of the year as they were 2-1 coming off of a very ugly win against South Florida, where the score was 17-3. This was because after losing to Texas 34-24 the week before, head coach Nick Saban decided to bench starting quarterback Jalen Milroe and play his two other quarterbacks, which resulted in one of the worst Alabama performances in recent history. After that game, however, the Crimson Tide went on a roll, winning 9 games in a row, including a miracle against rival Auburn to get themselves into the SEC championship. Alabama would face their toughest competition yet as they would have to face #1 Georgia, who hadn’t lost a game since the 2021 season. They went in and beat the Goliath of college football 27-24 and propelled themselves into the College Football Playoff conversation. However, Alabama’s one loss was to Texas, which won the Big 12 earlier that day and would eventually be the #3 seed in the playoff. With Michigan and Washington’s spots all but guaranteed and Texas with a high chance of making it, that left the #4 spot open between Alabama and Florida State.

The day after the conference championships was the dreaded day of the selection show, and everyone was making arguments for whoever earned the last spot in the playoff. Were we going to see a playoff without the SEC in it? Were we going to see an undefeated Power 5 champion left out? We got answers to both questions as the selection committee officially decided that Alabama would be the number #4 and Florida State would be the #5 spot on the outside looking in. Even after the selection, the football world exploded in heated debates and thus created one of the most controversial decisions in college football history. Was Alabama selected because of being a dynasty for over ten years, or was Florida State left out due to inconsistent success? Either way, people called out the committee for being hungry for ratings and views on television. Those people’s claims have some truth behind them, as the Rose Bowl game between Michigan and Alabama pulled in over 27 million viewers, the most for any college football game in 5 years. The game was a thriller and went to overtime, where Alabama called a quarterback to draw up the middle on fourth down to get stuffed and lose 27-20.

With Alabama losing, Florida State fans were even more furious as they boasted that they would have done better against Michigan, granted they still had all their star players. It does beg the question: would things have played out differently had Florida State been selected, or would it have been the same result? Either way, a team that went 13-0 won the conference and earned a shot at the playoff, but it was rejected by a committee that only cares about ratings and reviews. Ultimately, the committee achieved its goal as the Rose Bowl pulled in 27.7 million viewers, and the Sugar Bowl between Washington and Texas pulled in 18.4 million viewers. With the sport of college football constantly growing, there are still consequential moves that can impact history, and Florida State being left out of the 2024 College Football Playoff is one of them.

Graham Gardiner is a Sophomore member of the Multimedia Journalism class.

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Graham Gardiner

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