CBS Sports Projects Florida State To Earn First-Round Bye In CFP, Peach Bowl Bid

Could Florida State earn a playoff bye a year after being snubbed?

Florida State football football head coach Mike Norvell coaches players up during the final Tour of Duty winter workouts ahead of 2024 spring practices on Thursday, March 7, 2024. / Ehsan Kassim/Tallahassee Democrat / USA TODAY NETWORK

In less than a week, college football will be kicking off Week 0 in a slate of games that features Florida State taking on Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland.

The Seminoles will be hitting the gridiron for the first time since they were blown out by Georiga in the Orange Bowl after posting a 12-0 regular season and ACC Championship victory. They narrowly missed the four-team College Football Playoffs. However, this year, things might just be different.

As Mike Norvell heads into his fifth season in Tallahassee, Florida State is eyeing the new 12-team College Football Playoff. With an expanded field, the four highest-ranked conference champions will earn first-round byes (typically the Power Four programs, though it's not guaranteed).

READ MORE: FSU Football Opens As Double-Digit Favorite In First Two Games Of 2024 Campaign

Should Florida State repeat as champions in the ACC, they'll more than likely be viewing the first round of the College Football Playoff from home, waiting to see who their opponent would be.CBS Sports released preseason bowl projections this week, which happens to see the Seminoles land the No. 3 seed.

The outlet does have FSU entering the playoffs at No. 8 in the rankings but winning the ACC title gives them a first-round bye by default.

"Because the byes will be handed to conference champions, it's possible the teams that earn byes will not actually be the four highest-rated teams in the final CFP Rankings," CBS Sports wrote. "In our CBS Sports preseason projection, only two of the top four teams, No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Ohio State, receive byes to the quarterfinals. The other teams skipping the first round are No. 7 Utah and No. 8 Florida State, projected champions of the Big 12 and ACC, respectively."

Given the rest of the bowl projections, Florida State would be playing the hypothetical winner of the No. 6 and No. 11 seed, which happens to be Oregon and Kansas State, in the Peach Bowl on Jan. 1 in Atlanta, GA.

This projection goes well in the favor of Norvell and the Seminoles, as this signals Florida State would have done well with its roster reload after losing a plethora of talent to the NFL from the 2023 roster.

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READ MORE: ESPN's Paul Finebaum Continues to Call Out FSU Football Fans Over Reaction To Playoff Snub

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