On Saturday, November 18th 2024, the #4 ranked Florida State Seminoles were gearing up for a non-conference matchup against the North Alabama Lions. No one was expecting this to be a close game as it was considered a tune up game for the Seminoles for their big rivalry game against the Florida Gators. 

FSU was led by star quarterback Jordan Travis who was on track to send Florida State to their first ever College Football Playoff in the college’s history. Travis had racked up 2,756 passing yards to go along with 20 touchdown passes to only 2 interceptions. The senior quarterback was also on the way to be a lock to go in the 1st round of the 2024 NFL Draft. 

Everything was normal until the 1:43 mark of the 1st quarter. Travis suffered a catastrophic injury to his leg when a hard tackle came from a North Alabama linebacker. He suffered a broken leg on the play and would be out for the rest of the season. The Seminoles were relieved by junior quarterback Tate Rodemaker who cruised FSU to an easy 59-13 victory over the Lions. 

Florida State continued to win as they were able to beat their interstate rival Florida 24-15. Unfortunately, during that game Tate Rodemaker went down and suffered a concussion. Brock Glenn, a freshman who had never taken a snap of College Football, takes the place of Rodemaker during the ACC Championship against #14 Louisville. The game was ugly and brutal to watch but the Seminoles came out with a 16-6 victory and claimed the ACC title. 

This put Florida State’s record at 13-0. Many saw them as a playoff team no undefeated Power 5 conference champion had ever been left out of the tournament. 

But the College Football Playoff Committee had other ideas. The Committee shockingly left Florida State out of the playoff and put in the well popular Alabama Crimson Tide were put in at #4 even though Alabama has a loss on their schedule and FSU didn’t. 

This decision sparked outrage across the College Football world and even people in the US and Florida government. Florida US Senator Rick Scott requested transcripts and documents from the committee but his request never went through. And even Florida Ron DeSantis requested 1 million dollars from Florida State to file a lawsuit against the College Football Playoff Committee.

A lot of people thought this decision had to do with money as the SEC makes over 100 million dollars from ESPN’s TV deal to the ACC’s 40 million. After this decision FSU also tried to leave the ACC until they learned that move would cost them 572 million dollars. 

Even though this decision was very controversial it seems the Committee made the right decision as Florida State got pummeled by Georgia 63-3 in the Orange Bowl (largest ever point margin in the history of College Football Bowl Season). And Alabama and MIchigan played a thriller in the Rose Bowl. Even though Michigan won the game 27-20 in Overtime, many people thought Florida State would of gave a less entertaining game.