SEC Head Coach is 'Bothered' After Florida State's Playoff Snub
At this point, everybody in the world of college sports understands the scenario surrounding Florida State and their absence from the College Football Playoffs. They entered the conference championship weekend ranked No. 4 -- defeated Louisville to win the ACC Championship and end their season 13-0 -- just to be jumped by Alabama and Texas to become the No. 5 team in the country and narrowly miss the playoffs.
The outrage among fans, coaches, players and media that was caused by Florida State's playoff snub has been a sight to see. Plenty of people have spoken on the issue -- and not all have been in support of the Seminoles.
Those who are fine with the Seminoles not playing in the playoffs believe that the product of the semifinal games will be better as the four teams playing will play competitive games, alleging that Florida State wouldn't be able to put a fight in a potential matchup.
Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz -- despite being a coach in the SEC -- doesn't subscribe to that theory, tough. As a matter of fact, he called the decision to leave the Seminoles out "nonsensical rationalization."
"If we're going to really have hard conversations, let me ask you this. If a team in the playoff has a star player get injured, are they going to be removed from the playoff and then we put Florida State back in," Drinkwitz said during an appearance on SiriusXM. "That, to me, was complete nonsensical rationalization."
When Cincinnati -- a Group of Five team at the time -- went undefeated, they earned a playoff bid, even though they weren't one of the four best teams at the time. They lost 27-6 to Alabama that year.
With the stout defense that Florida State hoists, the team would have been able to play a good game, even without Jordan Travis. And there are plenty of other factors that can impact whether or not the current teams in the playoffs will be entertaining, and those things can happen between now and those games.
"I know I'm an SEC guy, but that one bothered me a whole lot. And to not factor in maybe a team having an unfair advantage in some other games, it just seemed like to me we were picking and choosing what lens we were gonna look through," Drinkwitz continued.
It'll be interesting to see how the committee operates over the next few years, especially as the playoff field is expanding to 12 teams, meaning this exact situation likely won't come around again.
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