Florida State’s Vulnerability and Come From Behind Wins Not Helping
The Florida State Seminoles have climbed back to No. 1 in the AP Top25, but just No. 3 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings, trailing Alabama and Oregon.
On Saturday, the Seminoles play ACC rivals Boston College and have a lot on the line. Not only does FSU need to win to keep pace with the other top CFP hopefuls, but also they must win big in order to impress the selection committee.
Despite being 10-0 and the defending national champions, Florida State has been looked at as not as strong as last season.
In today’s college football, a team cannot be defined by just its wins and losses. Style points are being discussed and FSU has not had the style or swagger to impress the 12-member selection committee.
Jeff Long the committee chairman was clear that winning was not enough, a team must also look good while winning.
Long added that the committee looks at how the games are played, if a team controlled the flow of the game and how well they looked on the field.
He referenced the early deficits the Seminoles faced against opponents that were considered so-so and the number of victories that were come from behind.
Those comments make it seem like the selection committee is judging a beauty contest or a figure skating tournament and not college football’s best teams in the nation.
By no means is the selection committee’s work an easy thing. Picking just four teams is a difficult thing.
The Seminoles have not had a tough schedule this season. The team’s strength of schedule is at No. 51 and the team has no hopes of getting help with only two unranked opponents left on their regular season schedule.
However, Florida State cannot blame the selection committee for its doubts. The Seminoles have shown vulnerability this season. FSU’s win last week over Miami was the fifth victory this season that the team was trailing starting the third quarter.
In addition, FSU has created doubts by not living up to ratings in the early season in years past.
The Seminoles win over Notre Dame looked like the biggest win of the season at the time, as the Irish were undefeated. Since then, Notre Dame has lost two more including to Northwestern last week.
That means the only top opponents the Seminoles have thoroughly defeated that were ranked are Clemson at No. 22 and Louisville at No. 24 and neither of the two teams are in the top 25 as of now.
Being the defending national champions does not help. Each week the Seminoles have a bull’s eye on their back when playing teams that want to knock of the champion. The team has not performed up to the standards of football pundits, but then again FSU remains 10-0 and unbeaten in 26 straight games and what other program can say that.
