Paul Finebaum explains if Florida State's stance on ACC impacted CFP decision

The anticipation was visceral during the final selection of the College Football Playoff top four as two well-deserving programs were bound to be left out of the playoffs, and one of those teams wound up being the undefeated ACC Champion Florida State Seminoles.

The CFP selection committee cited the season-ending injury of FSU quarterback Jordan Travis injury in Week 12 as a ‘really a big factor’ in the Seminoles being left out of this year’s playoff, with others citing the strength of the ACC possibly working against Florida State as well. But college football analyst Paul Finebaum believes the Florida State program could have potentially hurt their CFP chances earlier this year long before games were being played this season.

“I like Mike Norvell and I know you do, he’s done a phenomenal job, almost out a couple years ago,” Finebaum said to ESPN’s Matt Barrie. “But let’s not forget that people in college athletics don’t like Florida State. Because people in college athletics Matt are collegial people, they try to coalesce, you’ve heard them say this. We may be enemies on the field and let me tell you why they don’t like Florida State, because Florida State did something a couple of months ago that ticked off any conscious minded person in the sport.”

This offseason amid various reports and movement surrounding conference realignment, Florida State and its athletic director Michael Alford vocalized interest in leaving the ACC. Which Finebaum believes left a sour taste in the mouths of college football’s decision-makers.

“They stood up and said we’re too good to be in the ACC. They did it not in private at a booster club meeting, they did it at a board of trustees meeting,” Finebaum said. “My theory is that may have kept them out as crazy as that sounds, you don’t do that. You don’t go outside and take a leak inside as you know, and I think there’s some very likeminded people in that committee that go why are we going to do them a favor?”

The ACC’s revenue distribution model was a big talking point within the conference this offseason, specifically with Florida State pushing for greater revenue at spring meetings. This led to conversations between Alford and the Board of Trustees regarding potential buyout options for FSU, but could those choices from earlier this year really have impacted the Seminoles being the first undefeated conference champion to miss out on the College Football Playoff with one loss teams like Texas and Alabama making the cut instead?

“Now by the way, I realize that sounds absurd in terms of picking the four best teams, but I’m also trying to give a mindset here of administrators and how they think and athletic directors. And they go, we’re not selling out the biggest program in college football and the biggest name and arguable the biggest brand for a bunch of renegades,” Finebaum concluded.