College Football Playoff chair and NC State athletics director Boo Corrigan was in possibly the least enviable position Sunday: He had to explain on ESPN why exactly the playoff committee selected one-loss SEC champion Alabama for the No. 4 spot over undefeated ACC champ Florida State.
Understandably, Florida State fans were furious after ESPN revealed Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama will compete for a national championship this season.
And they probably will refuse to accept Corrigan’s explanation as reasonable or fair, and it makes sense, given that an undefeated Power Five team has never been left out of the playoff.
But the playoff chair still offered it after the top-4 teams were announced, explaining that player availability — such as Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis’ heartbreaking season-ending injury — was a “big factor” for the committee looking ahead to the playoff.
Boo Corrigan, the chair of the College Football Playoff committee, explains why they chose Alabama over Florida State: pic.twitter.com/17yNkBhRuZ
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 3, 2023
When ESPN’s Rece Davis asked Corrigan why the committee went with Alabama over Florida State, Corrigan said:
“Well I think in looking at it — and again that was the decision, was Alabama at [No.] 4. Florida State is a different team than they were through the first 11 weeks. And Coach Norvell, their players, their fans, you know, an incredible season. But as you look at who they are as a team right now without Jordan Travis, without the offensive dynamic that he brings to it, they are a different team and the committee voted Alabama 4 and Florida State [No.] 5.”
When Davis pressed Corrigan to explain further what moved the committee to drop Florida State from its previous No. 4 spot to No. 5, he added:
“From a coaching standpoint, who do you want to play? Who do you not want to play? And as we go through that, again, looking at where we are today, right? Not where we were three weeks ago or eight weeks ago — who did they want to play? Who do they not want to play? And they’ve got significant voice in the room. And as we went through that — and we went around and around late last night. Came back again this morning to do it again, and, again, we came back with the top four as we did and Florida State at five. …
“We have eight really good teams this year, right? Somewhat of a unique year in the last year of the four, right, as we go through this. But looking at the player availability was really important to what’s going on. And I think someone said there, you can lose a running back, you could lose a wide receiver, but a quarterback as dynamic as Jordan Travis, it changes their offense in its entirety. And that was really a big factor with the committee as we went through everything.”
