The Florida State Seminoles entered Saturday’s ACC Championship Game as the fourth-ranked team in the country, according to the College Football Playoffs Selection Committee.
Even though the Noles were down to their third-string quarterback, redshirt freshman Brock Glenn, they still beat the 14th-ranked Louisville Cardinals and covered the two-point spread offered at 18+ college football betting sites.
The win brings FSU to 13-0 overall and poised to enter the CFP as the third or fourth seed. The CFP Selection Committee saw things differently and opted to include the Texas Longhorns and Alabama Crimson Tide as the third and fourth seeds.
There’s no doubt that both Texas and Alabama have put together a resume worthy of consideration by the committee.
What’s also without doubt is that the committee decided to inject speculation and personal bias into the selection process, projecting what might happen rather than basing decisions on what’s already been proven.
What’s additionally maddening is the forthcoming 12-team College Football Playoffs format that is being installed a season too late. If it were active this year, the committee may have left things alone and granted the Noles the three seed that they earned.
Why Florida State Should Have Made The CFP
We’ve already stated that an undefeated Power Five Conference champion has never missed the College Football Playoffs. For some reason, this carried less weight than the SEC Champion being included when both standards should have presided.
The outlier is clearly the Texas Longhorns. How does the 7th-ranked team climb to number 3 by beating the 22nd-best team in the country? It doesn’t happen unless the committee drastically changes its mind about something.
The Alabama win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game started this ball rolling. Once it became clear that the SEC Champion would be a part of the four-team playoff, the fact that Alabama had lost to Texas became a problem.
The Longhorns beat the Crimson Tide by 10 at Bryant-Denney Stadium, so fairness would dictate that Texas would also make it as a one-loss team. The Texas loss to Oklahoma at home didn’t put enough of a dent in their resume to keep them out.
Keep in mind that FSU held Louisville to their lowest point total of the year when they only allowed six points in the ACC Championship Game. That defensive presence alone should have given committee members confidence that they could hang with the best of the SEC, Big Ten, and Pac-12.
Football is a team sport where the championship results should be decided on the field. NCAA Football has opted out of that logic and continues to operate under a playoff plan that isn’t corruption-proof.
It is the only major sport where non-players have any say as to how the championship will be decided, and that will continue after the 12-team format is installed.
