How the Florida State Seminoles Became the Bad Boys of College Football
LOS ANGELES — It usually takes a while to turn everyone against you. It's a history, a pattern, a developed and established personality. In sports, it's also a badge of honor. That's what's so incredible about how fast Florida State turned off the entire country.
By now, it's clear that the Seminoles are the bad boys of college football. What's curious is how fast they got there.
"Perception of this game, you've heard a lot of good vs. evil stuff," Oregon offensive lineman Jake Fisher said, talking about Thursday's FSU-Oregon national semifinal at the Rose Bowl. "We're just young kids playing football."
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Kids playing football? Sorry, that's not going to sell. We need bigger meaning, packaged simply.
Of course, there are clear reasons why FSU is now "evil." Jameis Winston's behavior, the school's attempts to cover it up and head coach Jimbo Fisher's excessive, insensitive defense of him. There were other off-field troubles, too. And for those reasons, I see FSU in the black hat, too.
But it's surprising how widespread that image hit and with how much passion. It feels as if there's more at work.
First off, there's a nice, easy simplicity to it for the media, especially going into the FSU-Oregon Rose Bowl on Thursday. If you took a piece of paper, drew a line down the middle and wrote "Good" at the top of one side and "Evil" on top of the other, you'd find roughly how the media think. Then, everything that comes up can be placed on one side of the page or the other.
Somehow, Florida State's close wins have found their way under the evil category. When Auburn was winning all those close games last year, it was a sign from God, an example of great courage. When Florida State does it this year, it's lucky.
The sports world loves its bad boys. Pro wrestling built an entire industry on the idea. The Oakland Raiders in the 1970s were bad boys, and of course Bill Laimbeer and the Detroit Pistons of the 1980s were, too. But they were bad boys because they were bullies and cheap-shotters. They proved it over time.
Florida State is nothing like that.
People like to see Duke basketball lose despite Mike Krzyzewski's clean image and the school's academics. They've become a villain despite the flat-out gushing from ESPN. That's actually part of the problem. We've been told too many times how great they are, and half the time, they're the ones doing the telling. The second-worst thing about Krzyzewski is that he thinks he's the greatest thing in the world. The worst thing is that he's right.
Notre Dame football has some of the same elements, excesses and made-up mythology—Rudy is about half-accurate—turning people against the Irish. Meanwhile, University of Miami football of the 1980s and LeBron James and the Miami Heat were bad boys but out of cockiness.
Again, though, that's not what bugs people about FSU.
Last year, Florida State was seen as the good guy. The Seminoles were a family, and Fisher kept saying that the reason for their success was love. I sat at a press conference in Tallahassee last year, and Fisher was pitching that same line. When I talked with some players about it later, they all agreed that it was hokey but also said that it was true.
So they were the good guys. Nick Saban and Alabama were the dark force, robotically pummeling everyone.
Now, that has flip-flopped. Saban, dynasty broken (at least temporarily), is suddenly the sympathetic figure, partly because people are counting on him to stop Florida State from winning the national championship again.
That's part of what's at play here, too. When you're on the rise, you're about hope and overcoming something. People jump on board. When you're going back for seconds, when you have 29 straight wins, you're just greedy.
People love the up-and-comer, hate the champion.
In an age with social media and TMZ, when you win, there is just such an intense spotlight on you. The gee-whiz narrative goes away. When you do something that leaves a bad taste in everyone's mouth, it escalates in a hurry. Your story loses its freshness.
For Florida State, timing played a role in its ascension to big-time bad boy. Maybe that's a descension. Either way, they were responsible because of their own bad actions, but the freshness of their story factored into the change of image. And facing Oregon, it just draws the lines too cleanly.
That said, not long ago, even Oregon could have been considered the bad boy. It certainly has the excess of contributions from Nike chairman Phil Knight. USA Today estimates that he has donated more than $300 million to the school. The place has the most posh football facilities now. And not long ago, Oregon was in trouble for recruiting rules violations.
But the humility of Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota turned the Ducks into a feel-good story. Ohio State coach Urban Meyer used to have the black hat, too, but with his health problems and the fact that former coach Jim Tressel left the Buckeyes on probation, Meyer has been humanized and turned into a sympathetic figure.
In the final four of the College Football Playoff, that leaves the Seminoles with the black hat. They've earned it. But they wear it well, too.
Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report.
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