Now that Georgia has annihilated Florida State in the Orange Bowl, by an historic 63-3 margin, defenders of the college football playoff selection elites must be doing handstands.
In the words of college football guru Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.
There are many ways to view the Georgia landslide, and some of them continue to paint the selection people in an unfortunate light.
The supporters of these holier-than-thou types would point to the one-sided outcome of the Orange Bowl and congratulate them for correctly excluding unbeaten Florida State from the final four field playing for the national championship.
But, let’s spin the dial 360 degrees. Forget Florida State for the moment. Can these college football geniuses still feel Georgia, another playoff exclusion, is not one of the four best teams in college football?
We’re talking about the two-time defending national champions, whose lone loss in recent memory was a 27-24 setback to Alabama in the SEC title game. By virtue of that, Alabama, which earlier this season got thumped 34-24 by Texas, at home, got the nod for the playoff field.
Who in their right mind could say that Alabama clearly is better than Georgia? They were better by three points on one day in December. The moral of this story is lose early, as Georgia did, and give the aging playoff selectors time to forget.
Now, back to Florida State. We wrote recently about the sad state of the college bowl season, with teams having players simply opt not to play in these suddenly meaningless bowl games outside the national championship playoff.
The players sit for many reasons, including fear of injury ahead of the NFL draft, or because they already have committed to college football free agency – the transfer portal.
Florida State, according to a story on ESPN.com, played without 29 scholarship players vs. Georgia.
For reasons varying from injury, to opt-outs, to we’re not sure why, the Seminoles were without their top two quarterbacks, top two running backs, top two receivers, starting tight end, three defensive linemen, three starting linebackers and three starting defensive backs.
It was obvious that, stripped of the opportunity to play for a national title, these players said the heck with it.
Could Florida State at full-strength have beaten Georgia? Who knows. But congratulations to the selection people for interceding to help determine the degree of defeat, if not the entire outcome. They must be so proud.
Sam Ross Jr's site 