Florida State reacts to Alabama claiming last College Football Playoff spot

Florida State players, coaches and fans are all devastated after the 13-0 Seminoles were not selected to the College Football Playoff despite their incredible undefeated season and ACC title.

As part of their live broadcast of the College Football Playoff bracket reveal, ESPN embedded cameras with every team under CFP consideration to capture their live reaction, good or bad, to the selection show. When it came down to the reveal of the final two teams, No. 4 Alabama and No. 5 Florida State, the nation witnessed a bitter scene in Tallahassee.

Just below, you can view ESPN’s footage from the moment the graphics appeared on the TV screen showing the Crimson Tide in the field rather than the undefeated Seminoles. If you can stomach the sadness, take a look:

The Florida State watch party understandably isn't much of a party after the Seminoles were left out of the College Football Playoff field. #CFP pic.twitter.com/GpyBjcQh4n

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 3, 2023

Mike Norvell, fingertips hardly tapping against one another, realizes the decision as he sits next to equally stoic Jordan Travis. At least they took it in stride. Meanwhile, you can see and hear other players and coaches get a bit more animated after the decision.

Jordan Travis delivers strong tweet in response to CFP reveal

However, no one person felt the gut punch quite like quarterback Jordan Travis. He was a Heisman contender for most of the season and led FSU to a tremendous year before going down with a gnarly leg injury in one of the last games of the season.

Even without him, Florida State finished off the year with wins at Florida and over Louisville in the ACC title game. Yet, the ‘Noles were ultimately passed over for the playoff. To add salt to the wound, the CFP chairman, Boo Corrigan, came out and admitted that the Travis injury was a huge reason why the committee left FSU out of the field.

In wake of such news, Travis himself posted a message on Twitter expressed how torn up he is over the situation.

He tweeted: “devastated. heartbroken. In so much disbelief.”

Since Corrigan noted that Florida State just didn’t impress the committee enough without Travis, the FSU quarterback asserted that FSU would have been better off losing him earlier in the year so they could have proved how great a complete team they are.

“I wish my leg broke earlier in the season so y’all could see this team is much more than the quarterback,” he added. “I thought results matter. 13-0 and this roster matches up across any team in those top 4 rankings. I am so sorry. Go Noles!”

Tough day for ‘Noles everywhere.