FSU's Mike Norvell on 'Immediate Heartbreak' of 2024 CFP Snub: 'I Just Felt Grief'

Florida State head coach Mike Norvell relived the moment when the Seminoles learned they missed out on the College Football Playoff despite finishing the 2023 regular season unbeaten.

"We had a great story," Norvell said to ESPN's Andrea Adelson. "I still believe to this day if we were given an opportunity, it could have been really special to compete for a championship. I just felt grief. It was immediate heartbreak for that team."

In what was the most contentious decision of the playoff era, the selection committee placed one-loss Texas and Alabama ahead of fifth-place Florida State in its final rankings.

There was a broad acknowledgement the Seminoles were no longer one of the four best teams in the country after star quarterback Jordan Travis was lost for the season with a leg injury.

But fans expressed concern over the message the CFP committee was sending by omitting an undefeated champion of a Power Five conference.

The committee members weren't explicitly saying the regular season doesn't matter — something long cited as a potential consequence of instituting a playoff in college football — but they clearly weighed Florida State's regular-season résumé less than the current strength of its roster.

There were also the optics of punishing a team for a circumstance beyond its control. Shortly after the playoff field was finalized, Travis wrote on X, "I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y'all could see this team is much more than the quarterback."

"We followed the format and we didn't get the outcome we wanted," offensive lineman Maurice Smith said to Adelson. "That's the toughest part."

Thanks to a mass exodus of players before the Orange Bowl, Florida State never stood a chance against Georgia. The Seminoles only trailed 7-0 after the first quarter, but their lack of depth was quickly exposed as the Bulldogs put 35 more points up before halftime.

For the players that returned to Tallahassee for the 2024 season, the disappointment of missing the playoff probably still stings. Maybe FSU can channel that into another big year, one that leaves no doubt as to its championship credentials.