Thoughts From the Morning After: FSU 30 Miami 26

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Nov 15, 2014; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston (5) gestures to the crowd as the Florida State Seminoles beat the Miami Hurricanes 30-26 at Sun Life Stadium. Mandatory Credit: David Manning-USA TODAY Sports

Each Sunday following a Florida State football game, ChopChat editor Patrik Nohe gives his thoughts from the morning after.

At some point you have to just step back and admire all of the double standards that FSU is getting hammered with these days.

On the field, FSU keeps finding ways to win. It wasn’t pretty on Saturday night, but FSU pulled out a 30-26 win over Miami in primetime on ABC.

Off the field, the media keeps finding more and more ways to diminish Florida State’s accomplishments.

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Don’t be surprised when FSU finds itself fourth in Tuesday’s CFP committee rankings. The precedent for putting a one-loss P5 school ahead of an unbeaten P5 school was set last week when the committee jumped a once-beaten Oregon team over FSU. This week I expect that to continue.

While FSU’s comeback win over Miami will likely be labeled as ‘unimpressive.’ Bama’s win over top-ranked Mississippi State should help the Tide — who many already felt was playing the best of any team in the country — jump up into the top two or three spots. Oregon is unlikely to drop. And Mississippi State — who got beat handily but made it look closer with a late score — may not even fall out of the top four.

The stage is set for the only unbeaten P5 team in the country to be the last team into the playoff.

But where this gets a little strange is in how many double standards have to be set in order to get FSU down to third or fourth. Last season Florida State had to wait its turn — despite clearly being the most dominant team in the country — while the unbeaten defending national champs, Alabama, occupied number one. It wasn’t until Bama lost that FSU got to move up to the top spot.

This year, the reason for FSU getting dropped from no. 1 was that it hasn’t looked as dominant as last year’s team. But the dominant team from last year didn’t deserve to be ranked no. 1 until the defending champs lost for the first time– despite how they looked.

Then there’s the way FSU’s resume gets diminished. When an SEC team wins a game over a ranked opponent that win becomes a snapshot of the moment. Mississippi State can lose all of its games from here on out and finish unranked, but Alabama will get credit for beating the no. 1 team in the country for the rest of the season. But FSU no longer gets credit for having any wins over ranked teams — thanks to Notre Dame losing to Northwestern on Saturday — despite the fact Notre Dame (and Clemson, too) was ranked when FSU beat them.

No, FSU beating the fifth-ranked team in the country never happened as far as the media is concerned. But Mississippi State — who’s best wins are now against a three-loss Auburn team, and four-loss LSU and Texas A&M teams — still gets credit for three top 10 wins. None of those teams will be ranked come the end of today, but Mississippi State’s resume includes three wins over top 10 teams and FSU’s doesn’t include a single win over a ranked opponent.

These aren’t my opinions, these are actual arguments being used by pundits on ESPN and around the country.

What is an undefeated season worth? Not much these days.

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