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Jimbo Fisher on FSU's CFP snub: 'We've taken football and turned it into ice skating'
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- Jimbo Fisher on FSU's CFP snub: 'We've taken football and turned it into ice skating'
Count Jimbo Fisher among those with fiery responses regarding Florida State's omission from the four-team College Football Playoff.
"We've taken football and turned it into ice skating," Fisher told the Tallahassee Democrat Wednesday from his home in Texas .
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"It's wrong."
Fisher, the former coach at FSU and Texas A&M , said the Seminoles' undefeated season at 13-0 earned them the opportunity to compete for a national championship.
Instead, the CFP committee selected No. 1 Michigan (13-0, Big Ten champion), No. 2 Washington (13-0, Pac-12 champion), No. 3 Texas (12-1, Big 12 champion) and No. 4 Alabama (12-1, SEC champion).
Michigan plays Alabama in the Rose Bowl and Texas meets Washington in the Sugar Bowl Jan. 1. The two winners advance to the national title game Jan. 8.
No. 5 FSU will play No. 6 and two-time defending national champion Georgia (12-1) in the Orange Bowl Dec. 30.
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According to the CFP's stated criteria, it does not award the playoff positions solely based on record. However, Fisher, who led FSU to its last national title and undefeated season in 2013 at 14-0, said teams should be judged by wins and losses and not by opinions.
"Football is about what happens between the white lines," Fisher said, his voice rising.
"We've set it back because of opinions not based on truth. It's not ice skating. It's not (subjective) judgements.
"We are messing with the game."
The CFP committee's decision to exclude FSU from the playoffs continues to draw criticism nearly two weeks since the selection show.
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Tuesday, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced an antitrust investigation into CFP. FSU coach Mike Norvell said following the selection show Dec. 3 he was "disgusted and infuriated" with the Seminoles becoming the first unbeaten Power 5 conference winner to ever miss out on the playoff.
Fisher, who coached FSU from 2010 to 2017 and was fired by A&M last month after six seasons at the SEC school, credited Norvell and FSU for overcoming every challenge they faced this season.
The team, however, was ultimately judged by the CFP committee by an untimely run of injuries at the quarterback position.
" Florida State is a different team than it was the first 11 weeks," CFP selection committee chairman Boo Corrigan told ESPN. "As you look at who they are as a team right now, without Jordan Travis , without the offensive dynamic he brings, they are a different team and the committee voted Alabama four and Florida State five."
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Fisher bristled at looking ahead to potential games.
"You don't know what's going to happen on the field," Fisher said.
"That's what sports is all about (competing). You saw what was being pushed (narrative) at the end of the year. It's wrong."
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Former FSU football coach Jimbo Fisher: Seminoles belong in playoff
