Florida State football coach Mike Norvell is “disgusted and infuriated” by the College Football Playoff selection committee’s decision Sunday to leave the Seminoles out of the four-team field, he said in a statement. FSU is the first undefeated Power 5 conference champion to miss the Playoff.
Michigan was ranked No. 1, Washington No. 2, Texas No. 3 and Alabama — which beat former No. 1 Georgia in the SEC championship Saturday but previously lost to Texas at home — slotted in at No. 4 in Sunday’s final rankings. FSU was ranked fifth and Georgia dropped to sixth.
FSU lost star quarterback Jordan Travis to a gruesome leg injury suffered in a game against North Alabama on Nov. 18 but went on to win two critical games with backup quarterbacks Tate Rodemaker and Brock Glenn.
“What is the point of playing games? Do you tell players it is okay to quit if someone goes down? Do you not play Senior Day for fear of injury? What is the motivation to schedule challenging non-conference games?” Norvell said.
“I’m hurting for our players who have displayed a tremendous amount of resilience and response this season. What happened today goes against everything that is true and right in college football,” he continued. “A team that overcame tremendous adversity and found a way to win doing whatever it took on the field was cheated today.”
In a post to X, formerly known as Twitter, Travis said he was “in so much disbelief,” adding, “I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is much more than the quarterback.”
