Eli Drinkwitz: CFP committee was 'picking and choosing' with Florida State, Michigan decisions

The College Football Playoff committee’s decision to leave Florida State out of the top four has been the week’s hottest topic of conversation. Opinions continue to come in about whether the Seminoles deserved to be in the national semifinals, including from Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz.

FSU checked in at No. 5 in the final rankings on Sunday despite a 13-0 record and a victory in the ACC Championship. It marked the first time an undefeated Power Five conference champion missed out on the CFP, and committee chairman Boo Corrigan said a combination of strength of schedule and Jordan Travis’ season-ending injury was the reason for that decision.

To Drinkwitz, though, he wondered why the committee focused on Travis’ injury so much rather than something like the situation at Michigan, which is in the midst of an NCAA investigation into sign-stealing violations.

No "SEC bias" here.@CoachDrinkwitz disagrees with the CFP Committee citing injury as a reason to leave FSU out, calling it "complete nonsensical rationalization." pic.twitter.com/vhXfSfK3xz

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) December 7, 2023

“If we’re gonna really have hard conversations, let me ask you this. If a team in the playoff has a star player get injured, are they gonna be removed from the playoff and then we put Florida State back in?” Eli Drinkwitz said on SiriusXM College. “That, to me, was complete nonsensical rationalization. I know I’m an SEC guy, but that one bothered me a whole lot.

“And to not factor in, maybe, a team having an unfair advantage in some of their games, it just seemed like, to me, we were picking and choosing what lens we were gonna look through.”

How the CFP committee looked at the Michigan, Florida State situations

The CFP committee didn’t take any action with regard to the Michigan situation because Corrigan said it was an “NCAA issue” and wasn’t going to impact the rankings unless the NCAA deemed the Wolverines ineligible for a bowl game.

“We really view it as an NCAA issue, not a CFP issue. At this point in time, as we’re looking at this, we want to make sure we get — not just the top four teams but the top 25 teams, right?” Corrigan said.

When it came to Florida State, Corrigan made it clear Travis’ season-ending injury against North Alabama was a big reason why the Seminoles missed out on the field despite their record. But it wasn’t the only factor, as he said after the reveal show on Sunday. He also pointed out the difference in strength of schedule with that of Alabama.

Alabama had the No. 5 strength of schedule this year, according to ESPN’s metrics, while Florida State’s came in at No. 55. Corrigan said that was one of the biggest pieces of the conversation.

“It’s a factor, and it’s part of our protocol as we look at it,” Corrigan said on a post-reveal teleconference. “And again, Alabama’s strength of schedule was significantly higher than Florida State’s, but again, it’s two really good teams. You can only play the teams in front of you, etc.

“But at the end of it, just a difference in their offense and defense is wonderful, their special teams, the job that Coach Norvell’s done this year, it’s very admirable. Everyone’s got great respect for the job that he’s done, but we ended up at Alabama at four and Florida State at 5.”