FSU football: Will voters place two loss Alabama or Texas over FSU in final rankings?
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football completed the regular season 13-0, winning the ACC for the first time since 2016. They had one of the best defenses in college football and an explosive offense, even with backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker. However, the College Football Playoff Committee used the Jordan Travis injury excuse that we knew was bogus to keep the Noles out of the College Football Playoff in an unprecedented move. However, in what seemed like karma, the two teams the committee used to leapfrog and keep the Noles out of the playoff lost their games Monday night.
Ironically, their quarterbacks had poor games, even worse than FSU's third-string freshman QB, who would not have started had FSU been in the College Football Playoffs. Most of the FSU starters decided to opt out of the exhibition Orange Bowl game since there was no way they would achieve their preseason goal of winning a National Title. Everyone knows FSU at full strength, even without Jordan Travis, isn't allowing 63 points. They had an elite defense that didn't allow more than 24 points all season, and held the No. 1 offense in the nation, LSU, to 17 points before taking out the starters in the final minutes of the game. An FSU great posed the question below:
The exhibition loss goes on the record, but where do the AP voters place FSU in the final rankings after the National Title game? Will they penalize FSU for their starters not playing in a bowl they never should have been? It's important to understand AP voters kept FSU at No. 4, even though the committee dropped FSU in the playoff rankings with the snub. I think voters can legitimately place Michigan, Washington, and Georgia ahead of the Noles, as none of them will have more than one loss. However, would they keep Alabama or Texas ahead of FSU with two losses? Other two loss teams like Oregon, and Missouri, won their bowl games. Will they place them ahead of FSU? It'll be interesting to see how voters ultimately see FSU with all that has transpired.