Eagles

The College Football Playoff Committee Doesn’t Think a Backup QB and Great Defense Can Win it All

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Dec 5th, 2023 · 10:45 AM EST

---

We don’t write a lot about college football on this site because Philly is a pro sports town. So with 13-0 Florida State getting left out of the playoff for 12-1 Alabama, I’ll defer to Connor O’Gara at our sister site Saturday Down South, who wrote this in a column titled, “I have no problem with Alabama in the Playoff, but I hate what happened to Florida State” – 

“Alabama found out that is indeed in the Playoff, but man, I can’t help but be frustrated that it meant 13-0 FSU was left out.

Yes, I know. It’s a different team without Jordan Travis. FSU’s second- and third-string quarterbacks didn’t look like the second comings of Cardale Jones, and that’s why it was held out of the field. Never mind the fact that it went away from home and beat Florida and a top-15 Louisville squad thanks to that top-10 FSU defense. A 13-0 FSU team that beat 11 Power 5 squads won’t have a chance to play for a title.

That ain’t right. And it doesn’t mean that Alabama is wrong to be in, especially with a résumé that probably would’ve been the No. 1 overall seed 4 other times in the Playoff era (2014, 2015, 2017, 2021).

Selection committee chairman Boo Corrigan said that they deliberated 6 to 8 times on FSU vs. Alabama, but he came back to the Seminoles being a “different team” without Travis.”

Trying to make an Eagles connection, always, I can’t help but think about applying this logic to the 2017 team, which lost Carson Wentz and secured the #1 seed anyway. Imagine if there was some sort of situation where the Birds would have been excluded from a chance to win it it all because some committee thought they were a lesser team with Nick Foles under center.

Yeah, it’s not a perfect comparison, but you never know what can happen, which is the whole point.

Nevermind that FSU has an elite defense and held opponents to fewer than 21 points on 10 different occasions this season. They went 2-0 against the SEC, once with Travis playing (LSU) and once post-injury (Florida). And they shouldn’t have been judged on the play of third-string quarterback Brock Glenn in the ACC title game, because Glenn probably wasn’t going to play in the bowl game anyway.

O’Gara:

“We don’t know what Tate Rodemaker would’ve looked like with more reps with the first-teamers. Shoot, what did Jalen Milroe look like in his first few starts? Milroe had the benefit of time to turn it around and put himself in the conversation to get to New York for the Heisman Trophy ceremony. Rodemaker had 1 game. Mind you, he likely would’ve returned for a Playoff game, so judging the FSU offense for how it looked with a third-string quarterback in the rain against a top-25 defense didn’t make sense, either.”

The playoff is expanding next year, so I guess there’s a little bit of irony that the current setup is going out with a total stinker. Everything that could have gone wrong last Saturday did go wrong. And it’s hard to argue against the inclusion of the SEC champion, no matter how you slice it. It’s just difficult to believe that a 13-0 Power 5 team can be left out at all. The whole thing reeks.

devastated. heartbroken. In so much disbelief rn, I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is much more than the quarterback. I thought results matter. 13-0 and this roster matches up across any team in those top 4 rankings. I am so sorry. Go Noles!

— Jordan Travis (@jordantrav13) December 3, 2023