As tough as it was the watch, I cannot possibly know how hard it was for Mike Norvell, assistant coaches, and players of Florida State to see the Orange Bowl unfold as it did on December 30th.
Less than a month earlier this team had earned a berth in the playoff with an undefeated, 13-and-0 season capped off by an gritty win in the ACC Championship game against a good Louisville team. There are a host of issues which likely deserve a Congressional, if not criminal, investigation and, no, that is not hyperbole. I want to see email, texts, notes, etc. of the College Football Playoff Selection Committee members, staff of the Southeast Conference, and ESPN employees and executives. Throw in Disney as well.
The on-camera ESPN College Game Day crew debated the merits of having a one-loss SEC team jump an unbeaten FSU before Jordan Travis got injured. The seeds of betrayal were being planted.
It reminded me of how I proved the mainstream media was the PR wing for Congressional Democrats and the current Resident of The United States. You may (or may not) remember I shared headlines from newspapers across the country which ran different versions of the same basic gun control story within two weeks of each other. I predicted there would be legislation introduced by the left. Sure enough, the very day I made the prognostication it happened.
ESPN's College Game Day team was doing the advance work to eliminate the Seminoles, just like the mainstreamers did with guns. It (along with anything being kicked around behind closed doors/internal communications, et al) took hold within the Committee
If you crunched the numbers, like one listener of my show did (think analytics professor) and used the old BCS formula the end of the season rankings were: 1. Michigan 2. Florida State 3. Washington 4. Georgia. Yes, the three undefeated teams were no-brainers based on raw data (duh). The numbers also said Georgia was the clear number four team ahead of other notable one-loss teams Texas and Alabama. Thankfully (not), we had the enlightend view of the CFP Committee members, many of whom never played the game to inject subjective .... errr ... objective insight.
Give me a moment while I sip some 7-Up to stop the feeling of needing to hurl my lunch.
Sorry 'Bama fans, (not a hater, in fact, an admirer of Nick Saban) Texas should have been in over the Tide if Georgia was not going to make it. The reason? One word: Auburn.
Under no circumstances do the numbers leave out an unbeaten FSU, even without Jordan Travis.
We know the rest. We know what happened. We also know the 2023 FSU football team was and is unbeaten. The team which played in the Orange Bowl was an exhibition team. With few exceptions Georgia marched out its team. The Noles had two-dozen exceptions. It was laughable, sad, and cringey all at once. Yet, as bad as the score was our kids tried. They sucked it up and went out there and tried.
Afterward Bulldog Coach Kirby Smart (good coach, but did not have to run up the score as he did) was 100% correct when he pointed out the obvious. The team they beat was NOT the FSU team of 2023 and college football, bowls in particular, have a problem.
I solved that problem on the show today in my discussion with Ira Schoffel. The two of us also discussed THE elephant in the room (not Alabama) in the whole debacle which was the snub of the Seminoles, along with what's next for Florida State football.