Last week, we watched Florida State get robbed by the College Football Playoff (CFP) committee when the Seminoles were excluded from the playoffs in favor of Alabama.
The final CFP rankings have been released:
— First and Pen (@firstandpen) December 3, 2023
Michigan
Washington
Texas
Alabama
Florida St. becomes the first undefeated P5 team not to make the College Football Playoff. #CollegeFootballPlayoff pic.twitter.com/4ygDtOjh30
And contrary to what most college football analysts said (outside of Booger McFarland) on ESPN, which is the CFP’s exclusive media partner, FSU was definitely robbed. That was verified when CFP chair Boo Corrigan admitted on ESPN that the CFP was about TV ratings and matchups, not performance or record.
“Florida State is a different team than they were through the first 11 weeks,” said Corrigan. “Coach Norvell, their players, their fans…an incredible season. But as you look at who they are as a team right now without Jordan Travis, without the offensive dynamic that he brings to it, they are a different team, the committee voted Alabama four and Florida State five.”
Afterward, the a fusillade of debates erupted regarding Alabama leapfrogging the undefeated ACC Champion Seminoles.
After some time, politics waded into the controversy (what happened to “stick to sports”?) when Florida Senator Rick Scott and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to chime in.
In an op-ed for the Tallahassee Democrat, Scott railed against the CFP and called for transparency by Corrigan and the committee.
“Until we have transparency, the justified perception of an unfair system will prevail: that the committee has wrongly disregarded the known strengths of an undefeated team over the speculated impact of losing a single player,” wrote Scott. “That’s another diversion from the precedent set by the committee in previous years.”
DeSantis took things a step further by allocating $1 million in his proposed state budget for Florida State to pursue legal action against the CFP.
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