Boo Corrigan cites 'unique year' in response to Mike Norvell statement about value of games

At 13-0 with an ACC title to its name, Florida State looked like it was getting ready to hear its name called in the College Football Playoff top four. After all, no undefeated Power Five champion has ever been left out of the field in the CFP’s 10-year history.

That decision led to multiple statements from Mike Norvell and FSU blasting the CFP committee for leaving the undefeated Seminoles out of the national semifinals. In Norvell’s statement, specifically, he questioned the value of games, asking, “What is the point of playing the games?”

Boo Corrigan, chairman of the College Football Selection committee, responded to that statement by pointing out the different factors in deciding the top part of the rankings.

“It’s a unique year,” Corrigan said on a post-reveal show teleconference. “And to have the conference champions that we had, have the undefeated teams going into it, eight teams vying for an opportunity to be there. Injuries do happen.

“Regardless of what we do … someone’s gonna be disappointed in what we do. But the committee’s job and the 13 people in the room is to come up with what they believe are the best four teams.”

When the penultimate CFP rankings came out before championship weekend, Florida State came in at No. 3 even without Jordan Travis due to injury. Corrigan called the Seminoles a different team without their quarterback, but they still came in as a top-four team ahead of the ACC Championship.

After winning the championship, though, FSU fell to No. 5. Corrigan said the fact that other big games took place — and backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker didn’t play against Louisville — led to the committee to put Florida State behind the top four teams of Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama.

“There’s other teams that played,” Corrigan said. “Texas playing, Alabama playing, Alabama beating Georgia. Again, it’d be great if it was just in isolation as we did this, but it is in combination as we’re looking at it. And the fact that Rodemaker was not there, we did have limited access, visual, on the job that he did.

“But again, looking at the top four, we had to decide if Florida State was better than Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama, and in the eyes of the committee, Florida State was fifth.”

Instead, Mike Norvell and Florida State will head to the Orange Bowl and take on No. 6 Georgia on Dec. 29 in Miami.