Lincoln Riley on Florida State missing playoff: 'That should never happen'

As USC head coach Lincoln Riley thought about the future of the College Football Playoff, he still couldn’t believe what happened to Florida State.

FSU went 13-0 with an ACC crown but missed out on the four-team playoff. It was in large part due to quarterback Jordan Travis’ injury that knocked him out for the rest of the season.

But with more spots, Riley is glad something like that should never happen again: keeping a 13-0 Power Five champion out of the tournament.

“I think it’s interesting from a scheduling standpoint, just because like you said, what this previous model you know, you can afford to lose one game at the most and then after that you lose any more than that you got you virtually have very, very little shot of getting in the playoff,” Riley said on The Pat McAfee Show. “Where now, that’s changed. You know, I think the other thing that will be interesting that people haven’t really heard anybody talk about is, you know, if you get to the end of the year and you’re undefeated at some point you maybe look at resting your guys knowing that you’re already guaranteed a playoff spot.”

Heck, resting players knowing that your team is already assured a playoff spot could be a possibility. It’s almost like Florida State would’ve been better off doing that in 2023.

“I know there’s a bye and all that but like that’s something in college football that nobody’s ever even heard of,” Riley said. “That actually could happen now, which is interesting, because you could potentially play three more games and so it’s a good thing though, man … Like what happened to Florida State this year, that should never happen anywhere ever. And so I’m really, really glad that that piece is going to be fixed.”

The conference champs are getting in, as well as the highest ranked Group of Five champion. But say you have two undefeated teams squaring off in the conference title game in the Big Ten for instance?

Would one team actually rest players because the playoff spot is basically guaranteed? It’s possible if they want to throw out the possibility of getting a bye.

But if a team like Florida State was 12-0 going into conference championship weekend in 2024, perhaps the Seminoles would make the playoff regardless.

In any event, Riley likes the way the playoff shifted to a larger bracket for next season.