11/14/2023 football Edit

FSU remains No. 4 in College Football Playoff rankings

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

Once again, Florida State is holding steady in this week's College Football Playoff rankings.

The Seminoles (10-0, 8-0 in ACC) are still No. 4 in the updated third edition of this year's rankings, which were released Tuesday night, after their 27-20 rivalry win over Miami last week.

There were questions if No. 5 Washington was going to jump ahead of the Seminoles after a second consecutive ranked win over Utah at home Saturday afternoon. However, FSU remains ahead of the Huskies, who are also unbeaten, for the third straight week.

"Florida State, really good offensively, has been really good defensively. Don't undersell the Florida State-Miami rivalry as well. That's been going on for years. Miami hit a big play for that touchdown in the second half when we thought Florida State was a dominant team there," CFP committee chair Boo Corrigan said on the ESPN broadcast Tuesday night when asked about the FSU-Washington comparison. "Washington continues to win, really good defensive second half against Utah, but as we looked at it and evaluated it -- as y'all can appreciate, the debate is getting stronger every week as we get more data points going through this -- we ended up with Florida State at four and Washington at five."

The Seminoles, who take on FCS opponent North Alabama this week before facing rival Florida next week in Gainesville and competing in the ACC Championship Game Dec. 2, remain behind No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan in the rankings.

However, it's worth noting that Michigan and Ohio State will face off Nov. 25 in Ann Arbor, Michigan and the loser of the game is expected to fall behind the Seminoles so long as FSU wins out.

Just behind the five Power Five unbeatens are No. 6 Oregon, No. 7 Texas and No. 8 Alabama with Missouri and Louisville rounding out the top 10.

The Nos. 1 and 4 teams will face off in one semifinal and the Nos. 2 and 3 teams will face off in the other semifinal. The Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl will host the semifinals on New Year’s Day, with the CFP Championship game in Houston on Jan. 8.

Among the retired coaches on the CFP selection committee are Jim Grobe, Chris Ault and Joe Taylor. Grobe coached at Wake Forest (2001-13) among his stops, while Taylor coached at Florida A&M (2008-12) among his jobs.