Florida State, left out of the College Football Playoff despite undefeated record, gets crushed in historic win by Georgia

By Eric Levenson and Jacob Lev, CNN

(CNN) — Florida State University vowed revenge after being left out of the four-team College Football Playoff despite an undefeated 13-0 record.

But on Saturday at the Orange Bowl, Florida State faced a historic defeat by No. 6 Georgia, falling behind 42-3 at halftime, and lost by a final score of 63-3 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.

The 60-point margin of victory is the largest ever in a bowl game, breaking Georgia’s record from last year when the Bulldogs defeated TCU 65-7 in the national championship game to win the program’s second consecutive title.

More than 20 Seminoles players opted out of the bowl game, including backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker. Freshman Brock Glenn started the game for Florida State and struggled, throwing for 139 yards and two interceptions on 9 for 26 passing. Georgia finished with 673 total yards.

The Seminoles and Bulldogs both now finish the season 13-1.

The matchup came weeks after FSU was controversially shut out of the playoff, making the Seminoles the first undefeated team from a major Power-5 conference to be excluded from the playoffs since its inception in 2014.

The 13-member selection committee instead opted to select Michigan (13-0), Washington (13-0), Texas (12-1) and Alabama (12-1) as the four playoff teams.

The exclusion sparked harsh criticism from school officials attacking the priorities of the playoff selection committee. FSU filed a lawsuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference alleging mismanagement, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis even set aside $1 million for litigation expenses in case the team wishes to wage a legal war over its exclusion.

An FSU win over Georgia would have given further credence to the team’s complaints and allowed them to claim they ought to be the true national champions. A loss, though, gives the committee a chance to say, effectively, “We told ya so.”

Georgia, meanwhile, had its own gripes with being excluded from the playoff. The Bulldogs have won the past two national championships and its loss to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference championship game was its first in more than two seasons.

Why the committee excluded FSU

The College Football Playoff field is selected by committee rather than by a simple win-loss record in part because college football teams play such different schedules.

The committee, made up of athletic directors and former coaches and players, ranks the teams based on their play on the field and considers conference championships, strength of schedule, head-to-head competition and comparative outcomes of common opponents.

FSU’s star quarterback Jordan Travis was injured last month, and though the team continued winning without him, its offense badly struggled. In its last game, the Seminoles won a low-scoring 16-6 affair against the Louisville Cardinals to earn the ACC title in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Speaking on ESPN, College Football Playoff committee chair Boo Corrigan said FSU was left out of the final four because of Travis’ injury. “Florida State is a different team than they were through the first 11 weeks,” he said.

FSU head coach Mike Norvell slammed the decision as ignoring what supposedly matters most: The results on the field.

“I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision today to have what was earned on the field taken away because a small group of people decided they knew better than the results of the games,” he said.

CNN’s Wayne Sterling, Jill Martin, and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.

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