Florida State’s football team is causing yet another debate, and two sports media personalities on ESPN are on opposite sides of the aisle.
After Florida State won the ACC with an undefeated season but missed out on the College Football Playoff — which itself has stirred controversy — the Seminoles were thrashed, 63-3, by Georgia in an end-to-end blowout last Saturday.
That rout has pitted Chris “Mad Dog” Russo and Robert Griffin III against each other, with both having an opinion on why things turned out so poorly for Florida State in its bowl game.
During his weekly appearance on ESPN’s “First Take,” Russo called out the Seminoles for their defeat, especially after the team — and even some Florida lawmakers — called out the playoff selection committee for leaving the Seminoles out of the four-team postseason.
“Florida State, that spent three weeks moaning and groaning about how they got royally screwed, they show up at that game in the Orange Bowl in front of all those fans and they lose 63-3 with a bunch of amateurs after they moaned and groaned about how they were messed up,” Russo ranted on the show.
“Oh, that is such an unbelievable disgrace. I could not believe what they did on Saturday. Seminoles, you are a disgrace to college football.”
Already without quarterback Jordan Travis, who was lost for the season with a gruesome leg injury in November, Florida State played the bowl games without at least 29 scholarship players, including backup signal-caller Tate Rodemaker, after players opted out or hit the transfer portal.
Keeping this in mind, Griffin sympathized with the Seminoles and felt they should’ve been one of the top four teams after they were left out of the shuffle despite having an undefeated regular season and a conference title.
“FSU is NOT a disgrace to College Football,” the ex-quarterback an ESPN personality wrote. “FSU didn’t need to prove that they belonged because THEY ALREADY PROVED IT in the regular season. Georgia did what they were supposed to do to a team with 23 opt outs (13 starters) not playing. With all due respect, stop the nonsense.”
After the dismantling last weekend, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said it’s time for the system to change that allowed such a disappointing game to occur.
“People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this,” Smart told reporters after his team win. “It needs to be fixed. It’s very unfortunate that they have a good football team and a good football program and they’re in the position they’re in.”
The debate likely would not have happened if this occurred next season when things shift to a 12-team playoff.
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