Florida State went 13-0 and won the ACC championship in a seeming return to the elite tier of college football.
But the Seminoles will miss the College Football Playoff.
The CFP committee selected the other four power conference winners — Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama — for the four-team field, making Florida State the first undefeated Power 5 champion to be left out in the history of the playoff.
Florida State will likely be the last to hold such a distinction as well, as the CFP is poised to expand to a 12-team bracket next year.
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The heartbreak was palpable in Tallahassee, where players hung their heads in agony while head coach Mike Norvell blankly stared ahead in disbelief. The team had gathered at a watch party to celebrate what they expected to be a berth in college football’s final four.
In an interview after the selection announcement, CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan told ESPN that Florida State losing star quarterback Jordan Travis to a leg injury on Nov. 18 impacted the committee’s decision, calling the Seminoles, whose offense struggled over the past two weeks without Travis, “a different team” minus the star quarterback.
Travis himself had a far different take, saying he wished his injury had happened sooner, so the rest of the team had more time to prove itself.
Soon after the announcement, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford released a statement ripping the committee, calling its decision to leave the Seminoles out “destructive, far-reaching and permanent” as well as “unforgivable.”
“The committee failed college football today,” Alford said.
Norvell followed up with an even harsher statement of his own, saying the committee’s decision “disgusted” and “infuriated” him.
“What is the point of playing games?” Norvell said.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips released a statement as well, calling the omission of his conference’s champion “unfathomable” and questioning whether the committee followed its own guidelines.
Florida State was given an Orange Bowl berth to face off against Georgia, winner of the last two national titles and the other team among the top six that was narrowly left out of the playoff.
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