Bama lost to a Final Four team (Texas) by 10? points early in the season before their QB situation was settled.
Yes, FSU was undefeated. Yes, they had an easy schedule. Yes, they weren’t exactly dominant and had some narrow victories against bad/mediocre teams, Miami included.
Was the committee suppose to ignore how bad FSU’s offense looked against a mediocre defense in the ACCCG and against a 5-7 Florida team? Were they suppose to pretend that FSU without Travis isn’t a much different/weaker team than FSU with Travis? If they had, FSU would have been TCU’ed in the first round.
An extreme example to make the case. If there was a playoff in 1970 and Marshall had been an undefeated conference champion, should the committee ignore most of the team was killed in a plane crash and put the remaining players in the Final Four because they were an undefeated conference champ? Or, should they acknowledge that the team had significantly changed?
At the end of the season, FSU simply wasn’t one of the four best teams anymore. Not even close.
Would you bet your house on FSU against Bama straight up after seeing how FSU’s offense sucked against L-ville, a team that faded badly in its final three games? I’m guessing you wouldn’t.
It’s a shame Travis was injured because if not, this would be a non-issue.
I’m not saying Bama isn’t a better team, I’m saying FSU earned it. Lots of 1-loss teams miss out on the championship game because of that loss.
Hell, look at Georgia. If you’re gonna say “this is the best team even with a loss” then shouldn’t Georgia be in there?
If you’re gonna say Bama lost to a good team, shouldn’t you give Georgia credit for losing to a Final Four team as well? Texas lost to a team outside the top 10!
So everybody can go back and forth with all these comparisons. Those are judgment calls. But the holy grail is an undefeated Power 5 team. That’s not judgment, that’s hard evidence. To me that shouldn’t be taken away.
Bama needed a 4th and 30 Hail Mary to beat auburn who was 6-6 and lost to New Mexico State the week before. Bama. The lsu game was tied 28-28 when Jayden Daniels went out with an injury. They were down against Tennessee and had to come back and win. They struggled against Usf. They beat Arkansas 24-21. They beat Texas A&M 26-20 and could have lost the game. They lost to Texas at home.
Honestly, this is Sabans worst team since his first two seasons at bama. They beat a georgia team whose best players on offense were hurt.
As for fsu they beat everyone on their schedule. Their defense dominated Lousiville. It’s straight bs. Fsu struggled down the stretch….it’s a 13 game season….Washington barely won some games does that mean they are no good.
Going unbeaten is very hard to do. How many times did fsu lose to Miami over the years and lose out on playing for a championship. Bowden could not beat Miami and many times have the better team. When fsu played florida in 97 - fsu was unbeaten and lost to a spurrier team who rotated Noah Brindise and Doug Johnson every other play. Meyer two titles at uf he had a loss. Miami won at least one title if not more with one loss. This year was an anomaly with three teams going unbeaten. Heck when fsu won in 93 they lost to ND who a week later lost to Boston college. Many of Bama titles under Saban they have one loss.
Facts
Alabama 24- Arkansas 21
4th and 30 and completed a fluke pass for a td
17-7 win over Usf
28-28 vs lsu when Jayden Daniel’s went down
Beat Texas A&M by less than a TD
Uga had their starting tackle out, bowers and mcconkey were out and the refs missed a dropped pass which led to a touchdown for bama.
This bama team was not even close to being great. This was bamas worst team since Saban took over. Name one team of names over the past 15 years who this bama team would beat.
I meant to say their OT amaris mims was out. He got injured. Both bowers who had surgery on his football was about 60-70 percent. Also McConkey was limping the entire game
Washington (or UT) vs Florida State, Penix vs TATE RODEMAKER???
In the end, at 13-0 with a healthy Jordan Travis, FSU is in the field. I know we love conspiracy theories and throwing rocks at just how sucky the ACC has always been, even in bad SEC years. But that injury is a bad one, sets up FSU for a semifinal where points for them would be mostly nonexistent and in the end, the committee wanted to have, what they HOPE (i say hope, not certainty) will be a better game to viewers.
While I personally agree that FSU should be in, this idea that they deserve it is not correct.
The committee doesn’t base it on who they feel deserves it. They base the decision based on who they see as the 4 best teams period.
I was having this discussion at work with some other football fans and this “deserve” notion keeps getting passed around…it’s a placebo.
I stated prior to the announcement on our Slack channel that FSU would be left out as I could see they would feel that Texas, GA, and Bama were actually better teams overall based on the quality of opponents and strength of schedule.
And there could be a case made for each team trying to get in. It’s a subjective opinion and while I feel that FSU is one of the best 4 remaining teams. I can absolutely see someone else’s opinion that they are not. I didn’t see them dropping GA out of the top 4, that doesn’t usually happen either to the prior #1 team.
Either way someone was getting the short end of the stick…
I’m not shocked they got left out and I get the argument that they see four better teams. I just don’t think you can leave an undefeated conference champion from a power 5 out for a 1 loss team.
They are basically saying they will give the SEC team the benefit of the doubt because they played one awesome game and beat Georgia.
It’s a moot point going forward with the 12 team playoff, but ESPN and the SEC really had this thing cooked up well before the final week. Herbie was even shilling for them prior to Travis’ injury. It was pretty pathetic tbh.
The committee is tasked with selecting the four best teams at the end of the season.
Without Travis, FSU was very arguably no longer one of the four best teams. They could have showed out in their last two games without Travis to end the debate, instead they looked pathetic offensively and Bama got in because they beat the best team in the nation of the last day prior to the committee’s selection.
Is it fair? What is fair? There is too much subjectivity in the selection process which leads to teams of the fringe of being in the Final Four feeling they were treated unfairly. The expanded playoff will get rid of this problem to a large degree but the fringe teams, 13th, 14th, etc., will still feel they were screwed over.
Personally, I’m enjoying the FSU suffering over this. I doubt any FSU fans would be lobbying for Miami if the situation was reversed.
Again if Travis is healthy the Noles are in. Texas would have been out, Bama would have still made it. Texas won head to head and that committee would have said they liked Bama’s overall SOS, especially that final win over UGA. THAT one put them in over UT overall. Or some crap like that would have been made up by them. Michigan/Alabama and Washington/Florida State. That would have been the semis.
Projections are often proved wrong. As much as I have detested the 'Noles since Saint Bobby whined and cried his way into the Championship game only to be beaten by a half-assed Oklahoma team,…they deserved to be in the final four for 2023. Your record says WHO YOU ARE.
If you will remember Bowden claimed that despite losing to Miami…FSU was more deserving ,…then, after losing… the hypocrite mumbled how maybe it would have been better if MIami had played Oklahoma. It was a stomach-turning, revolting and absolutely stinking admission.
Miami’s team at the time contained Andre Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Shockey , Daryl Jones…( let’s not even talk FB’s and RB’s) …etc etc… and any 'Canes fan was pissed when Oklahoma’s Torrance Marshall ( a South Fla reject who couldn’t make the roster of any of the Big 3) started bragging after the game.
The commitee was wrong THEN …and it’s wrong NOW. It’s a travesty of justice and just one more reason that shows why the whole NCAA and Bowl selection Committee need to be burnt to the ground.