Florida State Has Been Claimed by the College Football Chaos Scenario

My senior year of college I took a “Politics in Russia” class. The class focused on the post-Russian Revolution politics, and was an insight into how not to manage a country. One of my favorite examples was a pantyhose committee, tasked with figuring out why American pantyhose was superior. Not only did the committee not fix Soviet pantyhose, they made it worse. The 2023 Playoff Committee is the American equivalent of the pantyhose committee, and the Florida State is the pantyhose.

Let’s get this out of the way early: the Playoff Committee was 75 percent right. Their job there was pretty easy. It was like an easy, wide-open layup. Just take the winners of three Power 5 conferences and stick them in the first three places. But, just like Lonzo, they missed the rim.

Now, I’m old enough to remember whenever there were people saying that Michigan shouldn’t make it into the playoffs because of the sign stealing operation (#FreeConnorStalions, #RideWithTheStalions). With that said, the Committee did absolutely what I thought they were going to do, and made the worst possible decision by leaving out Florida State.

I made the comment to friends yesterday that there was absolutely no way these people left out the SEC. I actually went as far to say they wouldn’t leave out Georgia and Alabama (I am cynical about sports selection committees that have included Condoleeza Rice). The SEC bias is incredibly in college football. It’s on-par with the Big 10 bias when it comes to college basketball. (Side note: I did a deep dive into the March Madness selection committee, and something like 70 percent of the members had a Big 10 connection). The playoff committee sat around and decided to make the decision that would make fans of the Lakers and Chiefs (formerly Patriots) happy.

Everyone Hates Jordan Travis

There had been rumblings last week that the playoff committee was generally unhappy with Florida State’s QB situation. And by unhappy I mean they saw a reason to throw Florida State under the speeding SEC train that has to be included in every discussion (hey, that sounds like their current Texas rep – Texas A&M). Because the logic would make sense if Florida State was just a completely different team. But it seems like not a single committee member remembers defense exists.

We all just spent the entire season watching Sicko Committee favorite, Iowa, win games purely with defense and special teams. Oh, and even crazier, the ACC has a 6-4 record against the SEC this season. Even crazier, Florida State accounts for 2 of those victories. I’m sure the committee had this at the front of their mind, next to mental images of performing pseudo-fellatio on Nick Saban’s half eaten oatmeal cream pies.

Also, I’m genuinely crushed for Jordan Travis, and not only because his first name is misspelled. The Heisman frontrunner (because he’s apparently the most important player in the country) sent out an apology tweet.

The man has a broken leg, and now he has a broken heart. Not even hearing Whoville sing on Christmas morning could put that heart back to its right size. (Side Note: This is the second blog in a row I have mentioned the Grinch. Do with that what you will).

Florida State, 2023 National Champion

This whole thing may have been a blessing in disguise to Florida State. Remember how last year we all got to just verbally dress down TCU for months after the National Championship game? I couldn’t take Gary Patterson seriously as a UH coach replacement because of his association with TCU, and he hadn’t been there in years. I don’t imagine Florida State would have made it out of the Michigan matchup unscathed. Big Jim, though, is about to lose to Alabama if player reactions mean anything.

I imagine Alabama reaction was psychopathic. No emotion. I felt like I was watching a movie from the 80s, and Alabama is the Russian team who has no emotion, only victories.

Nonetheless, nothing about this feels right. The committee made a deliberate decision based not on who deserved it, but by who makes the “best games”. By the way, we already knew it, but good defense apparently does not equal good games. Like did the committee watch the ACC Championship game? The Florida State defense was absolutely electric. Jared Verse is my new favorite d-lineman.

Next year, we’ll have this discussion again. But this time it will be about a team who definitely won’t be winning the National Championship. I’ll miss the complete entropy that was 13 (or so) people pick the best college football teams. The past 10 years have been much mote chaotic fun than the AP poll system. Nonetheless, its screwy.

But hey Florida State, you can join UCF in hanging a National Championship game, and forever be remembered as a champion that never was. And that’s almost better than actually winning, because everyone can put their own dream onto the screwed over team.

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