A season-long chain of events has led us to the point where Florida State football is now left weighing their options regarding taking legal action against the ACC, and taking the first step toward potentially doing so.
“Florida State has scheduled an emergency meeting of its Board of Trustees for Friday morning, the first concrete step needed in any effort to enable the school to take legal action against the Atlantic Coast Conference,” writes Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic.
Auerbach explains that even though the Seminoles have been considering suing the league to challenge its grant of rights for nearly a year now, being left out of the College Football Playoff field has played a role in expediting Florida State's timeline for potential legal action. The Seminoles are now in a position where they are even more eager to “change or improve their conference situation,” because of the perceived slight that comes with their ACC membership.
Now, why the Noles feel so compelled to make the ACC the scapegoat of their CFP snub is a curious development when it's so crystal clear that their lack of inclusion in the College Football Playoff has to do with Jordan Travis' injury and not what conference they play in.
The devil's advocate would say that an 11-1 Ohio State team made the CFP field in 2014 after winning the Big Ten with their third string quarterback, Cardale Jones. The Buckeyes went on to win the National Championship, which is a fate that Florida State won't get the opportunity to pursue this season.
How Florida State football got here
At this point, you're probably familiar with how this story goes. The Florida State football team opens up their season with a high-profile non-conference win over LSU. From there, Mike Norvell and the Seminoles spend the entire season ranked somewhere between 3rd and 5th in the AP Poll, remaining unblemished all season long despite a handful of scares along the way.
Then, just two weeks before their appearance in the ACC Championship Game, Noles quarterback Jordan Travis goes down with a season-ending leg injury. Despite playing two and a half games without Travis — including a road game at Florida and a neutral-site ACC Championship Game showdown with Louisville — Florida State finishes their season with a perfect 13-0 record, making the Noles one of three teams without a loss on their record this season.
And here's where things get tough if you're a Florida State fan … two one-loss conference champions made the field over Florida State, despite both being ranked behind the Seminoles heading into Conference Championship Weekend. And let's just be honest: had Oregon beat Washington in the Pac-12 Championship Game, there would be three one-loss teams in the field in front of Florida State.
As soon as Travis went down, so did Florida State's chances of playing in the College Football Playoff. Boo Corrigan, the chair of the CFP selection committee, even admitted that Florida State's absence from the four-team field had to do with the injury to the star quarterback, saying, “Florida State is a different team than they were through the first 11 weeks. Coach Norvell, their players, their fans, 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.”
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