College Football Playoff 2023-24: Did the Selection Committee get it right?

After carefully reviewing six different resumes following Florida State’s ACC title victory over Louisville on Saturday night, the College Football Playoff selection committee revealed the four semi-finalists less than 24 hours later. Michigan (#1 seed), Washington (#2 seed), Texas (#3 seed) and Alabama (#4 seed) will all get an opportunity to play for a National Championship in January. On the surface, it would appear that the selection committee’s decision to include four conference champions was a no-brainer, but if you take the time to analyze the first team that was left out of the field, you’ll arrive at the conclusion that an unforgivable snub was made on national television.

Florida State, who has not dropped a single ball game during the 2023-24 campaign, finished 5th in the final College Football rankings and will have to settle for a Capital One Orange Bowl appearance. To make matters worse, the Seminoles are the first undefeated squad to miss out on the College Football Playoff under the four-team format. So, I suppose the big question is, what more could the Seminoles have done? Yes, the Jordan Travis season-ending leg injury was a devastating blow to Mike Norvell’s squad, but the Seminoles did everything right from November 18th to December 2nd. They managed to dig themselves out of a double-digit hole against North Alabama (following Travis’ injury), overcome a slow offensive start against Florida in their final regular season game and knock off Louisville in the ACC Championship game. No, they haven’t look great offensively in their last few games, but don’t results matter more than anything else? Their chances of winning a National Championship would have been slim, of course, but there’s no denying that Florida State earned the right to compete in the most exciting event in college football.

Sorry Bama fans, but I am a firm believer that the Crimson Tide should have been on the outside looking in. Sure, they undoubtedly possess the most impressive win of the year this season (27-24 victory over Georgia in SEC Title game), but their head-to-head loss to Texas back in September should have resulted in a Michigan, Washington, Florida State and Texas College Football playoff. At the end of the day, you can’t leave out a team who won every single game on their schedule, regardless of their strength of schedule (SOS-55) and Quarterback situation. On the bright side, however, the college football playoff will expand to 12 teams starting in 2024, so an undefeated conference champion will always be included in the March Madness style tournament moving forward.