In athletic competition, the best team doesn’t always win a championship, but it usually gets an opportunity to try. Not this year in college football for the 13-0 Florida State Seminoles.
In case you missed it this past Sunday, Florida State was not chosen by the NCAA College Football Selection committee to be one of the teams in the four-team playoff. This despite two of the teams that were chosen, Alabama and Texas, did not finish the regular season undefeated.
The decision rocked the nation with questions of what else could the kids do? They beat everyone they matched up against. The followup question is why play the games at all if you do not get a shot at winning a championship?
Well, they did play the games and here is Florida State’s resume. The Seminoles began the season by whipping LSU, which was led by the presumptive Heisman Trophy winner, quarterback Jayden Daniels. They won at Clemson in overtime. In other weeks, Florida State, like most teams, won some close games when not at their best. But they won them all, something that unbeaten Michigan and Washington were able to do but that Texas and Alabama, both with one loss and chosen to fill out the playoff field, were not.
The committee’s reasoning was their belief that the Seminoles’ only shortcoming was being shorthanded due to their star quarterback, Jordan Travis, breaking his leg last month against North Alabama.
The season-ending injury put a backup signalcaller on the field. The backup, Tate Rodemaker, proceeded to sustain a concussion in a win the next week at Florida, This left Brock Glenn, a true freshman who had thrown four passes to that point, in charge against Louisville in the season finale.
Confirming that football is a team sport, the Seminoles’ defense tightened up even more, the running game eventually got going, and Glenn accomplished a vital task. He did not lose the game.
Still, the committee set a new precedent. It did not allow an unbeaten conference champion from one of the five marquee conferences to participate in the playoff.
Naturally, Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell was livid. He spoke of his team facing everything and anything placed in front of them and being cheated. Norvell also spoke of the message being sent by the committee to athletes at all levels. The message of how people and politics can walk over your accomplishments.
