I'm not trying to go all tinfoil hat here... I'm just presenting some thoughts and information that I find interesting 🤔
In case you weren't aware, ESPN has a 3 BILLION dollar media rights deal with the SEC that goes into effect in 2024. Keeping that in mind.
FSU was still ranked #4 after the UF game. After Jordan's injury. After the offense didn't look great, but UGA (the SEC) was still in. Had UGA won, FSU probably doesn't fall to #5, and we never have this conversation.
However, beating a top 15 team the following week got FSU dropped to #5 because the offense was being judged by a QB's performance who wasn't even going to be the starter in the playoffs. Still, the offense only put up 5 less yards than they did against UF with a true freshman QB against a higher ranked defense.
That "bad" offense put up more yards than #1 Michigan did in the B1G CG. More points than #2 Washington scored on AZ State's 109th ranked scoring defense in late October with a Heisman finalist at QB. They won by a larger margin than Texas did over 5-7 TCU and the same margin as they did against 7-5 ISU in the month of November, with their starting QB. They didn't need a hailmary to beat beat a 6-6 team that got blown out by NM St the week before, like Alabama.
Those games didn't define those teams, but FSU's did. Not the championship level defense they played with. The one that held the #1 offense in the country to 17 non-garbage time points. The same one that Bama gave up 28 to at home with Daniels knocked out of the game in the 4th quarter. That performance was too far in the rear view mirror for FSU, but not Texas' win over Bama that happened 1 week later. That was also against a Bama team that benched their current QB, struggled against USF, and then benched another QB. If FSU is a "different team" now, is it not possible that Bama was a different team back then? FSU's defense would have also gotten a 6'5 - 330 lb 4-star transfer DT back for the playoffs, too.
Never mind the SEC's 7-9 OOC record or the 4-6 record vs. the ACC. Never mind that FSU beat a higher ranked team than Texas in the conference championship game with a true freshman, making his first start at QB.
Coincidence or not, this move also happened to be during the same week that the SEC would have theoretically knocked itself out of the playoffs when Bama upset UGA. Uh oh! 😳 And they still left FSU ranked over UGA. So, the committee believes that after beating a worse team than FSU by 3 points in a neutral site that Bama was so good, they deserved to jump 4 spots and pass FSU. Also, the AP & Coaches poll has FSU in the top 4.
So what happens? They dropped an undefeated P5 champion out of the playoffs for the first time ever and put in two 1-loss teams instead. One of those is a current SEC power brand, and the other will be an SEC team in 2024 when the media deal goes into effect.
Oh, and both playoff games are broadcast on ESPN, btw. Yes, the ACC is an ESPN property, but they don't have nearly the money invested in that ACC as they do the SEC. It's no secret that ESPN's numbers have been dwindling and their parent company is losing money. What better way to create excitement for the SEC and boost the return on your investment! Especially when the team getting left out openly bashed an ESPN owned property for revenue issues and was open to joining a conference run by their largest competitor. As much as we love college football, it is a business, and companies only care about 1 thing.💰
I'm not saying that I've cracked some secret code. I'm just sharing my thoughts on this situation because, honestly, it sounds as plausible as any other scenario that tries to justify FSU getting screwed.
And before you say it was the 55th SOS, Oregon's was 52nd, and they would have gotten in with a win. Before you say they didn't want to see FSU get beat badly in the playoffs, 70% of games in the CFP era have been decided by at least 3 scores. Just food for thought... Go Noles!
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