If college football were a cartoon, there would’ve been a moment last December, just after the committee snubbed an undefeated Florida State team from the playoff, when Mike Norvell would’ve concluded this was as bad as things could get, all while unknowingly standing beneath a piano perilously being lifted up to a 20th-floor window.
Of course, after Florida State fell to Norvell’s former school, Memphis, 20-12 on Saturday, it’s entirely possible the Seminoles would prefer the piano to reality.
Nine months ago, Florida State had the world’s sympathy — at least the parts of the world that don’t chant “S-E-C, S-E-C” at weddings, funerals and children’s parties. It was easy to like that team. It was a group that fought harder after losing QB Jordan Travis, that gave all it had to keep winning, that missed its shot at the playoff not because of its own mistakes but because of the committee’s whim.
Now, there is no sympathy. There is only a strange mix of shame, frustration and dark humor, like spilling a drink down the front of your pants.
The beneficiary of the committee’s decision was Alabama, and things could’ve easily shifted toward a bleak 2024 for the Tide, too. They lost their playoff game, waved goodbye to the greatest coach in the sport’s history, then saw an exodus of players into the portal, including five who left for Tallahassee.
And yet, on the same day Florida State hit a new nadir, Alabama flexed the same muscle it so often did under Nick Saban, annihilating Wisconsin 42-10 behind a five-touchdown performance from Jalen Milroe.
In a more just world, Florida State might’ve earned a little good karma after the indignity of its playoff snub. In a more fair world, Alabama might, just once, be dealt a bad hand.
But college football has proven, again and again, it doesn’t care about fairness, but…
