Florida State football continues to make headlines—from a high profile and public divorce attempt with its longtime conference to the bitter rejection of being excluded from the opportunity to play for another national championship, and the loss of its star quarterback in an undefeated season—the Seminoles have been on an emotional roller coaster. But, there’s still one more game to go, and they’ll be playing it while missing more than two dozen players.
In the runup to Saturday’s Orange Bowl against the University of Georgia, some 24 players have entered the transfer portal, declared for the NFL draft or are out because of injuries. Among those not playing is #2 quarterback Tate Rodemaker, who has entered the transfer portal. Rodemaker took over the starter position from injured QB Jordan Travis during FSU’s win over North Alabama in November. He then started against the University of Florida, before being sidelined for a head injury. Third-string QB and true freshman Brock Glenn is now slated to start against Georgia.
Georgia too will be missing about 20 players after being bumped out of the Top four teams for its loss to Alabama late in the season.
Below is a recap of the events leading to the game.
SATURDAY’S ORANGE BOWL BRINGS LOTS OF QUESTIONS
Saturday afternoon the the 5th ranked Florida State Seminoles meet the 6th ranked Georgia Bulldogs in the 90th Orange Bowl. But the game brings many questions as to who will play for each team. FSU will be missing more than a dozen players including several key stars opting out because of plans to enter the upcoming NFL Draft or entrance into the college football transfer portal. And while Georgia will be missing fewer players than that, coaches Mike Norvell and Kirby Smart will field teams that are not the same as their 13-0 and 12-1 regular season teams.
WHY ARE THE NOLES IN THE ORANGE BOWL?
The last five weeks have been tumultuous for the undefeated Noles. The loss of Heisman Trophy candidate Quarterback Jordon Travis during the November 18th game against Northern Alabama was just the start of what has been an extraordinarily challenging period for FSU. The team defeated its state rival Florida Gators behind backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker and a solid, highlight-worthy, defensive effort. But the victory came with another setback, a concussion to Rodemaker which resulted in his inability to play in the December 2nd ACC Championship Game against Louisville. The motto “next man up” meant that 3rd string, red-shirt freshman quarterback Brock Glenn stepped in – his FIRST start as a college football QB. The Noles captured the conference title with arguably the best defensive effort of the season led by Braden Fiske, Tatum Bethune, Jared Verse and others, plus a solid running game led by game MVP Lawrance Toafili.
The following day the College Football Playoff Committee made the unprecedented decision to leave an undefeated Power Five Conference champion out of the CFP Top 4. While there have been many opinions shared about “the snub” even with both the Associated Press and the College Football Coaches polls ranking FSU #4 in their end-of-season standings, the game is set – FSU vs. Georgia.
WHAT’S ON THE LINE FOR FSU? WILL A VICTORY MATTER?
An Orange Bowl win will almost certainly place the Noles in the No. 2 position of the final polls with all but one of the teams currently ahead of them in the polls losing either a semi-final or final game in the playoffs. But would that victory calm the criticism that left the Noles out of the playoffs to begin with? Will critics push back that Georgia didn’t field a competitive team and that the Noles were still only as good as QB Jordan Travis could have taken them?
An Orange Bowl loss will likely keep the criticism coming at the team. Even with the Noles facing the same challenges of the loss of many key players for the game, critics will likely claim that the loss is further evidence that the Noles were deservedly left out of the playoffs.
Saturday’s game coverage kicks off at 4 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN.
DRAMA IN THE COURTS
A week before the game, the FSU Board of Trustees met in a virtual public meeting. The only agenda item was the presentation of and vote regarding a complaint to be filed against the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Chairman Peter Collins noted that this is not a reaction to the CFP rankings and playoffs. The board has been working on this for more than a year. However, in its complaint to the court against the ACC, the board makes clear it faults the ACC for mismanagement and mentions the CFP snub as a possible result of that. The board has engaged Greenberg Traurig, LLP for representation.
Attorney David Ashburn was in attendance to make a presentation to the board. The presentation provided the breakdown of how counsel interprets that the ACC Grant of Rights agreement and Multimedia Rights agreement have been mismanaged and misrepresented. And how the mismanagement has impacted the revenue potential for FSU and all ACC schools. The planned legal complaint was presented in detail.
The meeting resulted in a board approval to file the seven-count legal complaint to exit the ACC and challenge the penalties for this exit.
