College football has been debatably the backbone of American sports for the past 154 years. There are many traditions behind the sport, such as Iowa’s children’s hospital wave or Ohio State crossing out all the M’s on campus the week of their rivalry game with Michigan. All this puts college football in the spotlight of America during the fall and early winter months. For the 12 regular season games, most teams play as every game matters with one loss potentially putting you out of the 4-team college football playoffs to end the season. One loss is what caused controversy to all of college football when Alabama Crimson Tide with one loss made the playoffs as the 4 seed while the 13-0 Florida State Seminoles were left out as the 5 seed.

In the pre-season polls, Georgia was the unanimous decision for the number 1 seed for most people with them being followed by Michigan, then Ohio State, and to finish off the top 4 for their prediction for the playoffs was Alabama. Florida State wasn’t ranked far behind at 7 and was viewed as a legitimate contender for the playoffs and a national championship. If Florida State wanted to make the playoffs, they were predicted to need to rely on their star-studded offense behind running back, Trey Benson, and wide receivers, Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson. Most of all, if they even wanted to be anywhere near playoff contention, it was all on the right arm of their Heisman candidate, Jordan Travis. While FSU certainly had the capabilities of their quarterback, Alabama didn’t have the same feeling. Even though they were predicted to make the playoffs because Alabama seemingly always finds a way to win games, during the off-season they had an intense quarterback battle between Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson, and Tyler Buchner. It wasn’t until just days before their opener against Middle Tennessee that head coach, Nick Saban, named Jalen Milroe Alabama’s starting quarterback.

Entering the first week of the season, hopes were high for Florida State. While most powerhouse programs schedule what could be considered a “tune-up game”, this is a game in which a team plays a lesser opponent so their team can get back into the swing of playing against people in games other than their teammates. This was not the cause for Florida State. To start the year they scheduled, at the time, number 5 ranked LSU for their first game of the year. Florida State handled LSU with ease in a 45-24 win over The Tigers. The game against LSU cemented FSU as a legitimate contender to make the playoffs and their next game against Southern Miss continued to prove this as they won 66-13. However, the next week against a mid-table Boston College team gave Flordia State a run for their money. Going into the 4th quarter it seemed FSU was going to win by a decent margin as they were up 31-16 outsourcing Boston College up until this point. Then, Boston College went on a 13-0 to only put them down by 2. Although Florida State finished the game with that 2-point lead, this game put FSU’s legitimacy into jeopardy. This game proved to be a fluke for FSU as they managed to finish the season 12-0 with some blowout wins but also some tight games against teams that most people say shouldn’t have been close, like their 31-24 win against a mediocre Clemson team and a 27-20 win against a Miami program that has been struggling to regain their former glory in being a powerhouse program. Even with this success, disaster struck in their week 11 game against North Alabama, starting quarterback and Hesiman candidate, Jordan Travis, sustained a season-ending leg injury when he was tackled from behind by a North Alabama defender in the first quarter. This put FSU’s season into jeopardy heading into rivalry week for their games against Florida and then their conference championship game the following week. While they did get the win against Florida 24-15 it wasn’t the dominating performance you’d expect from one of the top teams in the nation. During their game against the number 14 ranked team in the nation, Louisville, for the conference championship game, both teams struggled but FSU did ultimately come out of the slugfest winning 16-6 to complete their perfect season and finish as ACC champions.

For Alabama, however, the road to the playoffs wouldn’t be easy either as they held one of the hardest schedules in the nation playing multiple ranked teams. The Crimson Tide didn’t start their season with a top-10 matchup like Florida State; their first game of the season was against Middle Tennessee State. In a game they expected to win easily which they did in a 56-7 blowout where they outperformed Middle Tennesee State in about every aspect of the game. However, disaster struck early in the season. In their week 2 game against Texas they were predicted to win by most because of how crisp and efficient they looked in their week 1 game. To end the first quarter the Crimson Tide were down 3-0, but their struggles didn’t end there as going into halftime they were down 13-6. However, coming out of half things were looking up for the Tide as they scored the only 10 points of the third quarter to put them up 16-13 going into the fourth quarter. But that’s where their real struggles started as they were outscored 21-8 to finish the game and they lost 34-24. After the game, questions were being asked about whether or not Alabama may be the team we thought they were or if Texas was that good. As a result of Alabama’s offensive struggles, quarterback, Jalen Milroe, was benched because of his 2 interceptions during the game and just his lack of ability to get the offense rolling. Alabama looked to bounce back with their new quarterback Tyler Buchner, playing against South Florida but their offensive struggles were still there as they only managed to score 17 points. With how their season had started, there were more questions than answers behind how their season would go. One thing that was for certain at least so far was that if the Tide wanted to win games they needed to get their quarterback play figured out and after a couple of days we got our answer with Nick Saban making Jalen Milroe the starter hoping he could figure it out and the Texas game was just a fluke for him. Milroe proved this as he led Alabama to 8 straight wins going into Iron Bowl week. While some games were closer than others that’s what is expected when you play one of the hardest schedules in the nation. In their game against Auburn, it was a lot closer than expected as the Tide only managed to pull out the 27-24 win but with that win in the set, Alabama started looking towards the next week and their conference championship games against the number 1 ranked Georgia. Georgia was favored going into the game as Alabama was only ranked at 8 at the time. Although Georgia was favored, some experts did expect Alabama to win the game setting the stage for the game to be one of the best all year. And the game proved to be just that as Georgia got the first score of the game to get the 7-0 lead but Alabama scored 17 straight to go into the half up 17-7. Georgia didn’t give up but they couldn’t break the 10-point deficit as it was 20-10 going into the 4th quarter. And Alabama managed to hold on to their lead to finish the game as they pulled out the 27-24 win finishing their season 12-1 and winning the SEC.

Every year the college football playoff committee picks the top 4 teams in the nation to make the playoffs. To make the playoffs, the committee picks the best teams for the playoffs based on things like your record, strength of schedule, and if you won your conference. Going into selection day many teams were in contention to make the playoffs but there were only 2 teams that were locked for the playoffs in Michigan and Washington. But the final 2 spots were up for grabs for teams such as Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida State. All of these teams being 1 loss teams except Florida State and their perfect season. All teams had good resumes to make the playoffs but every team had one flaw. Texas had their loss to a 2-loss Oklahoma team. Alabama had their early season loss to Texas. Georgia had their conference championship Loss to Alabama. Even with a perfect record, Florida State’s flaw was their strength of schedule, with their record being the 78th hardest schedule in the country, which is a fatal flaw to make the playoffs when they’re competing with 2 schools from the SEC who are notorious for playing some of the toughest games in the country. When the 3rd spot was revealed, it was the University of Texas leaving the 4th seed to either Georgia, Alabama or Florida State. But before they revealed the 4 seed they chose to reveal the 6 seed to show who would play the 5 seed in the Orange Bowl. The 6 seed came out the be Georgia leaving the final playoff spot to Florida State and Alabama. At the start of the season, nobody could have predicted one of these teams would keep the other one from making the playoffs. The only way these 2 teams were predicted to battle it out was in the playoffs, not in a selection for who’s making the playoffs in something out of their control. With much anticipation, the 4th seed was given to Alabama. 

With the committee’s decision came many emotions. For those rooting for Florida State, there was outrage. They all believed they FSU was snubbed from the playoffs as having a perfect season is one of the hardest things in college football and the fact they were able to do this and missed the playoffs was a hard pill for all players, coaches, students, family, and fans to swallow. For Alabama, this was exactly what they wanted. Ever since their loss to Texas, Alabama was constantly on the outlook of the playoffs, and for some, they seemingly made their way back up unexpectedly. While it was an unexpected decision to leave an undefeated team out of the playoffs, the selection committee soon expressed their reasoning. It was reported by Heather Dinich that the committee took Florida State’s recent struggles without star quarterback, Jordan Travis, into heavy consideration for them being left out. It was reported that the committee watched Florida State games together and had to ask the question, “Can Florida State win a national title without Jordan Travis?” While the absence of Jordan Travis is a heavy reason for FSU not competing in the playoffs, Jordan Travis expressed his personal opinion on this take in a tweet that said “I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is so much more than a quarterback. I thought results matter. 13-0 and this roster matches up across any team in those top 4 rankings”. However, the committee couldn’t change their decision now as they doubled down on their decision by coming out with more reasons for leaving FSU out. They were reported by Heather Dinich saying the committee was concerned as they watched the Seminoles struggle to get a first down in the first half of their conference championship game against Louisville. It was repeatedly stated that there is a specific section in the committee’s protocol that refers to the unavailability of key players that may have affected a team’s performance during the season and will affect their postseason performance. This still left outrage in the college football community as ESPN’s David Hale is quoted saying, “None of it mattered. The games are pointless”.

This situation between Alabama and Florida State proves that you can never please anyone. The committee took in everything they could and made the decision they felt was best for the sport and there was still criticism and outrage. If they made a different decision and left Alabama out of the playoffs there would have been arguments and anger from another side. No matter what way it was put, there was bound to be anger from somebody. However, this decision left a fire in those involved as Florida State is already ready for the 2024-25 college football season.