The end of the 2023 season for Florida State was filled with highs and lows. On the one hand, the ‘Noles finished the regular season 12-0 while winning the ACC, only to find out that they would be historically left out of the College Football Playoff for reasons that left a large portion of the football world questioning the legitimacy of the selection process.
With the NCAA adopting the new 12-team playoff in favor of four, the issue shouldn’t have quite as much of an impact on national brands such as FSU. USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley appeared on The Pat McAfee Show Monday to discuss the new format, including how the Seminole’s snub was wrong.
“I think it’s interesting from a scheduling standpoint point,” Riley said. With this previous model, you could afford to lose one game at the most. And then after that, you lose any more than that, you’ve got virtually very, very little shot of getting in the playoff. Where now, that’s changed.”
The topic came up when discussing how potentially playing an extra three games could affect whether or not a coach would sit players in preparation for the 12-team tournament to keep them rested and healthy. One of the major arguing points for the College Football Playoff Selection Committee’s reasoning for excluding the Seminoles was due to the season-ending leg injury starting quarterback Jordan Travis suffered in their 58-13 win over Northern Alabama.
“I think the other thing that’ll be interesting that people I haven’t really heard anybody talk about is if you get to the end of the year and you’re undefeated, at some point, do you maybe look at resting your guys, knowing that you’re already guaranteed a playoff spot?”
ACC play had ended for the Seminoles, and they were already guaranteed an ACC Championship berth before Travis’ injury. It could have been avoided by sitting him knowing that an out-of-conference loss late in the year wouldn’t affect their chances of being one of the 12 teams selected to the CFP in the upcoming format.
“What happened to Florida State this year, that should never happen anywhere ever,” Riley said. “So, I’m really, really glad that that piece is going to be fixed.”