NEW ORLEANS — Dillon Johnson is preparing for the biggest game of his life. But with a shot at a national championship, the Washington running back can’t help but feel a pang of sadness this week at the Sugar Bowl.
That’s because Johnson’s best friend is the star running back at Florida State, the first undefeated Power Five champion ever to be excluded from the College Football Playoff. Johnson and Trey Benson have known each other since kindergarten. They grew up in Greenville, Mississippi, where they shared carries at St. Joseph High as state champions and blossomed into four-star recruits in the class of 2020. They even announced their commitments at the same ceremony four years ago.
“We talked about this way back in August,” Johnson told 247Sports. “When I was looking back at the team, I’m like, well, we’re gonna see y’all in the playoffs. … We just knew that it was all gonna come together. And like it was this close. It was this close.
“It was just like,” Johnson said, allowing himself to unload an exasperated sigh. “It just sucked and I hate it for him because I FaceTimed him afterward. Just to see how heartbroken he was about it, it just sucks. No team should have to go through that, especially if you put in all that work in the offseason and nobody sees that but what you do on the field, so for somebody to just say you know, you’re not good enough when you’re undefeated, it sucks.”
Florida State’s exclusion from the field set the sport ablaze in controversy. It also sparked a litany of hot takes and strongly-worded rebuttals from FSU and ACC administrators. Heck, the state of Florida’s attorney general even launched an investigation into the playoff committee.
It took 10 years, but the College Football Playoff finally had its first bout of controversy just in time for the death throes of the four-team era. In the end, the words won’t matter, even if the pain is very much real. FSU will not play for a national championship, and no team of lawyers or pen teams can rewind the clock and change that. The Seminoles will forever wonder what-if — and so, too, will the four teams selected by the 13-person committee to participate in the semifinals beginning New Year’s Day.
In the hours leading up to the College Football Playoff committee’s announcement, the friends believed that there was a strong chance Washington and Florida State could face off as the Nos. 2 and 3 teams in the semifinals.
“I don’t want to say how I feel because I know I’m gonna be biased about it,” Johnson said, “but I absolutely think they should have been in, for sure.”
Instead, the committee penalized FSU after losing starting quarterback Jordan Travis to injury, dropping the Seminoles from No. 4 to 5 while lifting one-loss Alabama from No. 8 to 4 after the Tide defeated No. 1 Georgia in the SEC Championship Game.
Some topics you just don’t touch, especially if your opinion might affect your own position in life, so it wasn’t surprising this week to hear Texas’ players offer a wide variety of no-comment reactions. After all, the one-loss Longhorns don’t want to offer support for FSU and throw out No. 4 seed Alabama, the team the Longhorns defeated in Tuscaloosa in Week 2 and could meet again Jan. 8 in the national championship.
“I was surprised. I thought they were at least gonna get a spot,” said Texas receiver Xavier Worthy. “Thirteen-and-oh, I’d be upset, too.”
Added Texas offensive tackle Christian Jones: “Unfortunate. I mean, I know somebody on the team as well. He was a little gutted about that, but there’s a lot of things that are above us. It’s really how you react to things.”
How FSU reacted will only be a footnote in the story. FSU’s quest for a national title was denied by the committee, and, predictably, an avalanche of bowl opt-outs followed. At least 27 players will not be available when the Seminoles face Georgia in Saturday’s Orange Bowl. The Bulldogs enter as three-touchdown favorites after opening as a 14-point favorite.
Should FSU defeat Georgia and move to 14-0, the question is whether the Seminoles should shed decorum and claim a national title. There has been thought given to the possibility within the Florida State administration, sources tell 247Sports, but formal discussions have not occurred.
Not since the BCS was created in 1998 as a way to select the top two teams in the country has there been this much controversy. The father of the BCS doesn’t have an issue if FSU opts to claim a national title.
“They may, but that’s not a bad thing,” former SEC commissioner Roy Kramer told 247Sports. “Two hundred guys get a national championship ring instead of 100. You could have that. The one thing I would try to explain to the committee early on would be you got to understand your job is to pick the four best teams in the country, not the four best undefeated teams. They do not necessarily have to be undefeated. We’re going to try to pick the four best teams.
“… It’s tough anytime you leave somebody out. Go look at the NCAA Tournament. You leave out No. 68 and they scream about that. You can’t have any system that limits something without somebody complaining. But I think that that needs to be understood from the beginning and I don’t think we always have. The assumption in football is if you’re undefeated, you should be in. But, to me, you can be undefeated and left out.”
Kramer was the commissioner in the SEC when undefeated Auburn was left out of the BCS Championship Game in 2004. The Tigers didn’t claim the national title and still haven’t, even after the NCAA vacated USC’s 55-19 blowout of Oklahoma in the BCS Championship Game.
In 2017, UCF was aggressive under athletics director Danny White and claimed the national championship. The Knights even conducted a parade at Disney World, despite Alabama winning the CFP. UCF, which finished No. 6 in the AP poll, installed championship signage inside its stadium. The NCAA even recognizes the Knights as a national champion in its record book.
It appears unlikely that FSU will follow suit, even if the school has a penchant for brazen maneuvers. The school set the news cycle into a tizzy two days before Christmas by filing a lawsuit against the ACC in an attempt to exit the conference and chase bigger paydays in the SEC or Big Ten. The school says its playoff snub did not spark the chase for a bigger stage and more dollars.
Either way, the pain will linger — even outside Tallahassee.
“It’s hard to tell a team that’s undefeated they can’t come in because their quarterback got hurt. You should have just let them play the game on the field and let that decide it,” Johnson said. “That’s how I felt about it.”
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Brandon Marcello is a national college football reporter for 247Sports. You can follow him on X (@bmarcello).
