When it came to the College Football Playoff committee’s rankings after Week 13 of the college football season, what would they do with an undefeated Florida State team that won their conference championship?
The top two ranked teams were the Michigan Wolverines and Washington Huskies after finishing undefeated with conference titles. By that same logic, the Florida State Seminoles should have been the No. 3 team but when the rankings came out they were dropped to No. 5.
What would drop them out of the top four? The eye test. The Seminoles, despite not losing to Florida or Louisville in the ACC title game, looked like shells of their former selves. For that reason, we saw the Alabama Crimson Tide snag that No. 4 spot and the Texas Longhorns moved up to the No. 3 slot.
If that was indeed the logic behind it, then the Group of Five slot would likely be awarded to the SMU Mustangs. They defeated the Tulane Green Wave on Saturday to secure the AAC title. The Ponies played a close game against the Oklahoma Sooners but ultimately fell short. They would also lose two weeks later against TCU, another Power Five team.
The Liberty Flames won all 13 games they played in 2023 including two wins over New Mexico State, the second gave them the Conference USA championship. The analytics show that the Flames had the weakest schedule in all of FBS, ranked No. 133 out of 133 teams. According to the Football Power Index, Liberty has the No. 14 strength of record.
SMU was ranked No. 19 in strength of record while playing the No. 76 strength of schedule. The Ponies played two Power Five opponents, while the Flames didn’t face off with a single Power Five team in 2023.
If you are going to play the “eyeball test” card with the Florida State Seminoles with their No. 5 ranking, then it should also be applied in the argument between the Liberty Flames and SMU Mustangs.
The comment by committee chairman Boo Corrigan certainly rings hollow when they stated they rewarded Liberty as they kept winning games with a weak schedule. Especially when the committee left an undefeated Florida State team on the outside looking in at the four-team playoff.