Mark Stoops weighs in on controversial decisions from College Football Playoff committee

Kentucky coach Mark Stoops feels for Florida State after it was left out of the College Football Playoff despite an undefeated season. At the same time, he understands the tough choice the committee faced in making that decision.

The Seminoles were leapfrogged in the final version of the CFP rankings as one-loss SEC champion Alabama claimed the fourth and final spot. It marked the first time in College Football Playoff history that an undefeated Power 5 conference champion had been left out.

Of course, there was good reasoning to leave the Seminoles out after starting quarterback Jordan Travis went down with a season-ending injury. Although they fought through adversity to win the ACC title 16-6 against Louisville, they didn’t look like the same team and managed only 55 passing yards.

That doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking for Florida State players and fans, but Stoops believes all the teams in the top six had compelling cases. Someone was going to be upset no matter what the decision was.

“Like most people will tell you, there’s some good teams that were deserving,” Stoops said. “I think the way it fell this year, you have to feel for a team like that. It’s a tough situation. Those are some good teams. I’m not sure there’s a real clean answer for that. I certainly don’t have it because I haven’t had time to look into it like that, but those are some good teams.

“You look at the top five, top six, top seven. Heck, who would argue if Georgia got in? They hadn’t lost in three years. Pretty darn good team. I don’t think there’s a whole lot of teams in the country that would like to play them.”

Georgia, which lost to Alabama in the SEC title game, was coming off back-to-back national titles and had won 29 straight games prior to losing to the Crimson Tide. It felt odd to see the Bulldogs fall all the way down to No. 6 from No. 1 after the loss, but that was at least more understandable than leaving out a team that hadn’t lost all year.

With the College Football Playoff set to expand to 12 teams next year, there would have been room for both Florida State and Georgia to make the field. That should hopefully eliminate any further controversy in future years as Mark Stoops believes that number is sufficient to make sure all teams who deserve a chance to compete in the Playoff will get in.

Unfortunately for the Seminoles and Bulldogs, they were one year too early.

“When you start arguing over 12 and 13, too bad,” Stoops said. “When you’re over four and five, I think those are some legit arguments and it’s very hard to determine that.”