CFP Committee Member on Snubbing FSU: 'Holy S--t, This Is Really Going to Suck'

The College Football Playoff selection committee knew just how controversial it would be to leave out the undefeated ACC champions, Florida State, in favor of one-loss teams Texas and Alabama.

"All of us had the emotional tie, like, 'Holy s--t, this is really going to suck to do this,'" a committee member told ESPN's Heather Dinich. "We talked about that over and over, and we just kept coming back [to] are they good enough with what they have to win a national championship, and it just kept coming back [to] we didn't think they could."

The main justification for the snub was the injury to star quarterback Jordan Travis, out for the season with a broken leg. In two games without him under center, the Florida State offense was hardly imposing.

The decision wasn't a popular one, especially for anybody with ties to Florida State. The team's head coach, Mike Norvell, said he was "disgusted and infuriated." ACC commissioner Jim Phillips called the snub "unfathomable." Travis said he was "heartbroken."

But the committee had made up its mind, and Florida State was the odd team out. Next year, with a 12-team format, Florida State—and other one-loss teams like Georgia and Ohio State—will be in. But this year, the committee didn't deem the Seminoles worthy.

"At the end of the day, everybody had the same goal in mind—do we have the four best teams?" a committee member told Dinich. "And we all felt pretty good that we do."