CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Florida State helped open the ACC's annual kickoff event Monday, hyping the Seminoles' potential for a big 2024 season, but the aftermath of last year's playoff snub in spite of a 13-0 record was still at the forefront of everyone's minds.
"We'll be 50 or 60," said defensive lineman Patrick Payton, "and still thinking about it."
Florida State ended the 2023 season with a 13-0 record after a 16-6 win in the ACC championship game against Louisville, expecting a bid to the College Football Playoff. But with star QB Jordan Travis injured, the playoff committee handed the final playoff spot to one-loss Alabama instead, demoralizing the team, head coach Mike Norvell said, and leading to a slew of opt-outs for the team's Orange Bowl appearance, which the Seminoles lost 63-3 to Georgia.
"I tell people all the time, if we'd have lost the [ACC] championship game, I think a majority of those guys would've played," Norvell said. "It was a tough situation to have to go through."
Norvell took issue with criticism that the opt-outs -- 20 in all, including a host of stars such as Keon Coleman and Jared Verse -- signaled a culture issue within the team's locker room, saying the bowl game should do nothing to spoil the narrative surrounding last year's team.
"I care about the legacy that team left and it was a special legacy," Norvell said. "They were a gift for college football and a gift for Florida State. It was really remarkable. They showed their culture and character throughout the journey. They did it for 13 games."
Norvell lamented the aftermath of the ACC title game, with the team celebrating the win only to be utterly demoralized just hours later when the playoff matchups were announced. But Norvell said that many of the players who opted out returned for pro days and workouts, including several who spent last week in Tallahassee before moving on to NFL camps.
"It's their home, their family," he said. "They're forever Seminoles, but it was an unfortunate ending to a very special season."
FSU's continued complaints about the playoff snub appeared to have rubbed SEC commissioner Greg Sankey the wrong way, however. Sankey told a local radio station last week that he believed Georgia was the team with the most legitimate complaint about being left out of the playoff but "you didn't see us jumping up and down and complaining and hanging national championship banners."
Florida State didn't hang any banners, and Norvell was quick to note the flaw in Sankey's logic comparing the 13-0 Seminoles to a 12-1 Georgia team that lost the SEC title game to Alabama.
"I don't disagree that Georgia was one of the top four teams if you're judging off talent and ability, but they also earned their loss," Norvell said. "That was part of the result of what happened on the field. When you look at our team and what it was, we controlled the things we could control, we unfortunately had an injury, but we had a team that responded to it. Everybody can have an opinion of what happened. I don't disagree they were one of the four best teams, but what happened on the field kept them out of the playoff."
Should Florida State win the ACC again this year, it won't have to sweat out a playoff invitation. The ACC's champion is guaranteed a berth. But that security doesn't mean FSU will be satisfied with an ACC title. They want to leave no doubt about their greatness this time around, defensive tackle Josh Farmer said.
"If we're way better than a team," Farmer said, "we're going to put it on the scoreboard. Not just beating them by a little but really beat them."
Added offensive lineman Darius Washington: "All that [playoff] stuff is over with now and we have a whole new team to worry about. What happened last year hurt us, but if we keep whining about it now, it ain't going to [help us]."