Desmond Howard on Florida State's playoff snub: 'It seems they keep moving the goalposts'

Everyone has a take on what happened regarding Florida State and the College Football Playoff. That includes Desmond Howard as he feels as though the committee pulled the rug out from under the Seminoles’ feet after a season of success.

Howard made his point during an appearance on ‘The Rich Eisen Show’ on Monday. As a player, he says it feels like you and your team have all of these boxes to check and expectations to meet. After doing all that was required of them, though, he says it looks very much like the committee changed the criteria on the ‘Noles after the fact of them going undefeated.

“I guess I look at it from a player’s lens so to speak – a former player’s lens. You have a checklist and you’re like, ‘Go undefeated, win a conference championship, play a competitive non-conference schedule'” Howard said. “Like, that’s one thing that we’ve always talked about. We’ve talked about people’s schedule. ‘They have the cupcakes during the non-conference schedule’ so they didn’t challenge themselves, they didn’t play anybody. That was a real point of emphasis a few years ago. Now, you have teams taking challenges like Florida State. They played LSU. They played two SEC schools, since they also played the Florida Gators, and won both games.

“So, it’s like, as a player, you listen to all of this and everything that you’re supposed to do. And as a coach too. You take risks, you go and you play LSU early in the season, you knock them off. You run the table, you win the conference championship, and you’ve done everything that you can do,” Howard continued. “It seems as though that they keep moving the goalposts.”

There is a sense that Florida State did a whole lot for nothing in 2023. Posting an undefeated record and winning the ACC are two accomplishments that should hold value. However, since the committee kept them from a shot at a national title, they feel like hollow stepping stones en route to a finish line that they don’t feel they deserve to be at.

There aren’t a whole lot of right answers in this debate. It’s just that, to Howard, he doesn’t understand why we’re going back and forth between objective and subjective arguments on these teams depending on when it may benefit anyone the most in the conversation.

“It’s just unfair and it’s unfortunate. I believe that they did everything that was asked of them as a program to earn the right,” said Howard. “People talk about, ‘Is it the most deserving team? Or the best team?‘ Well, you don’t deserve anything that you did not earn. If you didn’t earn it than you don’t deserve it.

“I thought Florida State did everything that they could possibly do, everything within their power. All of that to me was just an excuse just to get an SEC team in the College Football Playoff.”