The College Football Playoff didn’t get it right by Florida State, but it won’t matter outside of Tallahassee, Fla., after Jan. 1, 2024. 
Call it big-brand cronyism. Label it super-conference collusion with the television networks. Chastise the committee for promoting controversy. This was the toughest decision since the inception of the four-team College Football Playoff in 2023. At the heart of competition, it’s the wrong call.
Florida State deserved to be in the College Football Playoff. The Seminoles finished 13-0 in the ACC, beat LSU in a step-out non-conference game and gutted out three victories after starting quarterback Jordan Travis went down with a season-ending ankle injury. They are the first unbeaten Power 5 champion to not make the CFP, and that was at the expense of two one-loss teams in No. 3 Texas (11-1) and No. 4 Alabama (11-1).
Did CFP committee set a bad precedent?
This is a dangerous precedent for the future. One wonders whether one of the mega-brands would have got the same treatment. What if Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy had suffered an injury against Iowa in the Big Ten championship? Would Texas still be in if Quinn Ewers was questionable for the Sugar Bowl? How do you justify leaving out an
unbeaten team when we all watched Ohio State backup quarterback Cardale Jones lead a national championship run in 2014? If the four-team era extended past this year, then it is impossible to believe the Seminoles would have had to settle for the Orange Bowl matchup against No. 6 Georgia.
No. 5 Florida State deserved to be in the College Football Playoff. The Seminoles finished 13-0 in the ACC, beat LSU in a step-out non-conference game and gutted out three victories after starting quarterback Jordan Travis went down with a season-ending ankle injury. They are the first unbeaten Power 5 champion to not make the CFP, and that was at the expense of two one-loss teams in No. 3 Texas (11-1) and No. 4 Alabama (11-1).
Did CFP committee set a bad precedent?
This is a dangerous precedent for the future. One wonders whether one of the mega-brands would have got the same treatment. What if Michigan’s J.J. McCarthy had suffered an injury against Iowa in the Big Ten championship? Would Texas still be in if Quinn Ewers was questionable for the Sugar Bowl? How do you justify leaving out an unbeaten team when we all watched Ohio State backup quarterback Cardale Jones lead a national championship run in 2014? If the four-team era extended past this year, then it is impossible to believe the Seminoles would have had to settle for the Orange Bowl matchup against No. 6 Georgia.
MORE: Jordan Travis wishes ‘my leg broke earlier
The 12-team CFP will fix the issue, right? Maybe. Maybe not. Look at the past.
If this were the poll era, then we would have Michigan and Washington in the Rose Bowl for the national championship with a possible split national championship with the Seminoles.
If this were the BCS era, then it would be the Wolverines and Huskies with the Seminoles getting what amounts to the “Boise State treatment.” Is that how we’ll value the ACC in the 12-team College Football Playoff? Better question: Did you really think they were going to leave Alabama out?
This is the four-team CFP era, and we still might get a split national championship if one-loss Alabama and Texas win their semifinals and Florida State beats Georgia in the Orange Bowl. Problem not solved.
The other precedent set Sunday is that the SEC and Big Ten still control College Football – and that will continue in the 12-team CFP era. The majority of those at-large bids will be given to SEC and Big Ten schools.
This College Football Playoff is basically a PSA for those conferences. Washington is coming to the Big Ten. Texas is coming to the SEC. They left the ACC and Big 12 behind and the literally for dead.
There will always be controversy in college football, and the 12-team College Football Playoff will not be able to inoculate itself from that. It feeds this game – arguably more than any sport. The committee made the wrong decision at its core, but come Jan. 1 most of the fans will drop the indignation and watch the games. In that regard, they gave most people what they really want even if they are afraid to say it out loud.
