Florida State’s snub from the College Football Playoff remains one of the biggest controversies in sports, but now there’s some new insight into when the selection committee might have started thinking FSU should be on the outside looking in.
That moment appeared to come during the ACC title game on Saturday night, according to an ESPN report.
The selection committee began to grow “concerned” as Florida State struggled during the first half of the conference championship game against Louisville as the Seminoles only scored three points in the first two quarters before winning 16-6.
It also seemed that FSU’s issues getting first downs during the opening half raised eyebrows.
That started to give the group pause as it turned to a section in its protocol that allowed the committee to weigh the “unavailability of key players … that may have affected a team’s performance during the season or likely will affect its postseason performance.”
That key player in this instance was injured Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis.
There already had been speculation following his knee injury in a 58-13 win over North Alabama in late November that Travis’ absence could impact Florida State’s chances at a playoff spot despite their undefeated season.
But with its exclusion, FSU became the first-ever undefeated Power Five conference champion to miss the College Football Playoff.
“People really wanted to talk about it,” one committee member told ESPN. “We don’t really have that conversation while we’re watching games. But we’ve got to talk about the elephant in the room. What just happened? We talked about 13-0. We talked about the teams they beat. And they were a conference champ. All of that. It took a while.”
The selection committee’s decision to exclude Florida State has kicked off plenty of outrage out of Tallahassee and from the ACC.
FSU coach Mike Norvell said he was “disgusted and infuriated” by the decision, and ACC commissioner Jim Phillips called the committee’s move to leave out the Seminoles “unfathomable.”
An even stronger reaction has come from the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who proposed setting aside $1 million in state funds for possible litigation of Florida State’s exclusion from the College Football Playoff.
The Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate said the money would be used for “any litigation expenses that may come as a result of this really, really poor decision by the College Football Playoff to exclude an undefeated team.”
Florida State will take part in bowl season, facing Georgia on Dec. 30 in the Orange Bowl.