There are four unbeaten teams this season in college football.
Through more than a dozen weeks and three-plus months of competition, only four programs stood remaining as undefeated come bowl season.
READ: USC’s Lincoln Riley announces QB Caleb Williams won’t play in Holiday Bowl
The unbeaten teams include No. 1 Michigan, No. 2 Washington, No. 5 Florida State and No. 23 Liberty.
Two of those programs are playing in the College Football Playoff for college football’s biggest prize, a national championship, in the Wolverines and Huskies.
However, the CFP Selection Committee did something unprecedented: it left an unbeaten Power 5 conference champion out of the Playoff.
Here are some noteworthy quotes as focus turns from Week 14 to bowl season.
Bo Nix, Oregon
No. 8 Oregon had a chance at redemption against Washington going into the Pac-12 Championship game last weekend.
The Ducks sought to right their only wrong of the season which came in Week 6 when they fell 33-30 to the Huskies, and Washington beat Oregon a second time, this time 36-33, and claimed the conference title.
Oregon quarterback Bo Nix is out of eligibility. He’s a contender for the Heisman Trophy, given to the most outstanding player in college football.
Nix leads the country with a 77.2% completion and is tied for most passing touchdowns with LSU’s Jayden Daniels who also has 40.
Nix gave an ode to his college football career after Oregon’s loss on Saturday. He reflected on a number of college football staples and traditions that meant the most to him.
“I’m going to miss college football. I know it was my goal my whole entire life to be a college quarterback and to play and to win a national championship, and even though that may be off the table and it’s not necessarily something that can be obtained anymore, it was still a goal and I still worked for it every day,” Nix said. “As crazy as it sounds, I’m going to enjoy this plane ride home around the guys because I’ve had many of them before, but not sure how many I’m going to have in front of me and, I don’t know, it’s just a lot of emotions, a lot going on that, man, you wish you could change, like, you wish you could go back and do so many different things. But, I mean, they’re over there on the same side, you know, they wanted to win too, and that’s what is the good and bad thing about any kind of competition, any kind of sports is there has to be a loser and as bad as it feels, that’s why you play the game.”
Mike Norvell, Florida State
As mentioned earlier, the Seminoles got the shorter end of the stick when it came to the CFP.
READ: Full list of Power 5 bowl games
Unbeaten all season and atop the Atlantic Coast Conference, Florida State was left out of the Playoff based on it seems a couple factors.
The Seminoles won three of their last four games by 10 points or fewer. But they still won the games.
Florida State also lost starting quarterback Jordan Travis due to a horrific left leg injury in Week 12. But the Seminoles still won their final three games with backups Tate Rodemaker and Brock Glenn.
It seems the CFP Selection Committee penalized Florida State for its loss of Travis among other factors. The committee does take into account which players are available for a team when making its decision, and it went with No. 4 Alabama which beat then-No. 1 Georgia 27-24 in the Southeastern Conference Championship game over the Seminoles.
Florida State head coach Mike Norvell released an emotional statement on Sunday, giving his opinion on the Seminoles being left out of the Playoff which left him “disgusted and infuriated.”
“I am disgusted and infuriated with the committee’s decision (Sunday) 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,” Norvell stated. “What is the point of playing games? Do you tell players it is okay to quit if someone goes down? Do you not play a senior on Senior Day for fear of injury? Where is the motivation to schedule challenging non-conference games? We are not only an undefeated P5 conference champion, but we also played two P5 non-conference games away from home and won both of them. I don’t understand how we are supposed to think this is an acceptable way to evaluate a team. I’m hurting for our players who have displayed a tremendous amount of resilience and response this season. What happened (Sunday) goes against everything that is true and right in college football. A team that overcame tremendous adversity and found a way to win doing whatever it took on the field was cheated (Sunday). It’s a sad day for college football. I’m proud of the work we have put in and the players I have the privilege to coach. We have one more opportunity to define this 2023 team in the Orange Bowl, and I believe in how our team will respond.”
Deion Sanders, Colorado
The college football world went ablaze over the weekend and into the week after Florida State was left out of the Playoff.
Many voiced their opinion on the Seminoles missing the CFP on social media, and many voiced displeasure about it.
READ: Stat Pack: Week 14
This season is the final year of the four-team Playoff. Next year, it will expand to include 12 teams, allowing the six highest seeded conference champions a spot in the CFP.
Colorado head coach Deion Sanders is an alum of Florida State, playing there from 1985-88 across three sports.
Sanders shared his stance on whether Florida State didn’t receive a fair shot at the Playoff, and while he gave his opinion, he also talked up the 12-team Playoff — and how he and the Buffaloes plan to be in it.
“First and foremost, I want their problem. Can I have that problem? Can I have those problems please? I want those problems,” Sanders said. “Thank God the committee got it right next year when there’s a bigger gate and open for a plethora of schools having an opportunity to go to the playoffs — and we plan on being one of them. There’s no way that you’re going to leave coach Saban and Alabama out of a playoff and Georgia. No, you’re not going to leave Georgia and Alabama out. It ain’t no playoff if you do that. I’m happy man, I’m not happy. I don’t know how I would have handled that. I think coach Norvell did a wonderful job articulating himself speaking his truth and the players supporting him as well. That’s a tough one man. I would love to be in that situation. Unfortunately, we’re not but we plan on being in that situation. But that’s a tough one. But they’re going to always go with the business. See, people think it’s just football man. You got to understand this is a business as well.”
