FSU's Mike Norvell Responds to SEC Commissioner's Comments About Georgia, CFP

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey took a fairly pointed dig at Florida State last week while discussing the College Football Playoff, telling reporters that "Georgia was one of the best four teams (in the nation) and didn't get in (the Playoff). But you didn't see us jumping up and down and complaining and hanging national championship banners."

On Monday, Florida State head coach Mike Norvell offered his own take on the situation:

"I don't disagree that Georgia was one of the top four teams if you're judging off talent and ability but they also earned their loss. That was part of the result of what happened on the field. When you look at our team and what it was, we controlled the things we could control, we unfortunately had an injury, but we had a team that responded to it. Everybody can have an opinion of what happened. I don't disagree they were one of the four best teams, but what happened on the field kept them out of the playoff."

Last year's College Football Playoff selection was one of the most controversial in its history. Michigan came out of the Big Ten undefeated and was an easy choice as the No. 1 overall seed, given the schedule it faced, but chaos reigned after that.

Washington, Texas, Alabama and Georgia each had one loss, and the first three were conference champions with signature wins (Washington beat Oregon twice; Texas beat Alabama; Alabama beat Georgia). Georgia's lone loss, meanwhile, came against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game after it spent most of the season ranked No. 1.

And then there was Florida State.

The Seminoles finished the season undefeated, but played a far easier schedule than the schools listed above and were without starting quarterback Jordan Travis down the stretch. The team's offense suffered as a result, and the CFP Committee chose to leave them out of the Playoff.

That was highly controversial, dividing fans between two factions: Those who didn't feel like Florida State was one of the four best teams in the country and didn't deserve a bid, and those who felt it was irrelevant because the Seminoles went undefeated in a Power-5 conference and deserved a Playoff berth.

The former camp felt vindicated after Georgia absolutely steamrolled Florida State in the Orange Bowl, 63-3, though over 20 FSU players decided not to play in the game.

Such debates will be far less frequent going forward, as the playoff is expanding to 12 teams this season and could be stretched to an even bigger number in the years to follow. In the new format, a major conference champion isn't going to be left out of the mix.