After spending almost the entirety of the 2023 season at No. 4 in the polls, that's just where the Florida State football team landed Tuesday night.
The Seminoles were announced as the No. 4 team in this season's first College Football Playoff ranking on ESPN Tuesday evening.
FSU, which is 8-0 for the first time in nine years, is behind No. 1 Ohio State, No. 2 Georgia and No. 3 Michigan and ahead of No. 5 Washington among the five remaining undefeated Power Five teams.
This would set the Seminoles up for a matchup against the top-ranked Buckeyes probably in the Rose Bowl while the Bulldogs and Wolverines would face off in the Sugar Bowl.
While FSU has three wins over teams that were ranked in at least one poll when they played, the Seminoles' only win over a team in the CFP top 25 is No. 14 LSU thanks to Clemson and Duke's recent struggles.
“You’re looking at five teams that are undefeated. There are seven overall, but five in this group that we are talking about. You kind of start to look at body of work," CFP Committee Chair Boo Corrigan said on the ESPN broadcast when asked about the order of the top four teams. "Georgia, the wins over Kentucky and Florida, the dominance that Michigan has played with this year both offensively and defensively, four wins over teams that are .500 or better and then Florida State, as you're looking at them, the big win over LSU, tight game against Boston College, obviously the Red Bandana game, a very emotional game. As a group, the 13 of us came to the conclusion that this was the right order for the top four slots.”
Shortly thereafter on the teleconference with media members, Corrigan was asked why Ohio State with its two ranked wins over Notre Dame and Penn State is ahead of Georgia and Michigan but other teams that have better wins that UM and UGA do — FSU and Washington — are not also ahead of those two.
"I think as you look at the full body of work, Florida State being No. 4, the win over LSU, the win against Duke, kind of a front-loaded schedule, if you will, they've looked really good," Corrigan said. "Offensively putting up 41 points a game. Their defense is ranked in the top 20. But again, as we looked at it overall and went through the process, we came out with Ohio State 1, Georgia 2, Michigan 3, Florida State 4."
Corrigan also underscored the top four teams separated themselves from Washington due to the Huskies' recent struggles.
For the Seminoles, it's their highest ranking in the CFP poll since they finished the 2014 regular-season as the No. 3 team behind Alabama and Oregon. It's also the program's first time that it remained in the national title hunt this far into a season since 2014.
For FSU coach Mike Norvell, it's a major milestone on the impressive rebuild he's assembled since arriving on campus in December 2019. The Seminoles made their first appearance in the CFP rankings since 2016 last year, first appearing at No. 23 in Week 10 and reaching all the way to No. 13 in the final edition on Selection Sunday thanks to the five-game winning streak with which the 2022 Seminoles finished the regular season.
That winning streak is now up to 14 games, the third-longest active streak in the country behind Georgia (25 games) and Washington (15 games). After Norvell was 8-13 in his first 21 games at FSU, he's 18-3 in his last 21 games.
Norvell said Tuesday morning he expects to be too busy with his job responsibilities to watch the ranking reveal show live Tuesday night. However, he didn't seem to be against watching the show in principle.
Quote book: CFP chairman Boo Corrigan, executive director Bill Hancock
"I'm probably not going to watch it, just by the timing of what we have gameplan-wise," Norvell said. "But if I'm done, I'm not against understanding what's out there."
Norvell shut down a follow-up question asking if he may want to avoid things that could be seen as a potential distraction to him and everyone around the program.
"I'm not going to get distracted. I'm not. We have a purpose, we have a mission. 8-0 can be distracting if you allow it to be distracting. Anything good, bad, when we were 0-4 a couple years back, that could have been distracting. It's about what you're willing to do and what you're willing to invest to get to where you want to go," Norvell said. "Do I want people nationally to recognize our program and the great players I get to coach? Absolutely. I think it's wonderful that people are talking good about Florida State. They should. We've got a really good team. We've got guys that have played at a high level.
"Have we played perfect? No. Do we have a lot of areas to improve in? Yes. But I'm not, 'Don't tell me anything.' I want people talking about Florida State because they're going to. The way that we do things, we want to make sure we're representing the program the way it deserves to be represented, we're competing to get better and something that people want to be a part of."
FSU looks to improve to 9-0 this weekend at Pittsburgh (3:30 p.m. on ESPN). The second edition of the CFP rankings will be released next Tuesday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
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