Perhaps the biggest storyline to come from the 2023-24 college football season was the Florida State Seminoles missing out on the four-team College Football Playoff despite an undefeated regular season record. And unfortunately for FSU fans, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is not done reminding those who disagreed with the decision about their misfortune.
Finebaum, who was quick to call out those who criticized the CFP committee at the time, appeared on ESPN’s First Take on Monday to preview the upcoming college football season.
When posed the question of which Top-10 ranked team would end the season unranked, Finebaum was quick to name Florida State as a candidate to finish below expectations.
“Florida State,” said Finebaum when asked the question by Christine Williamson. “First of all, they have no business being inside the top ten. They have a difficult schedule. They have Miami and Notre Dame within a three-week period on the road. They end the season with Florida, which is a debatable team. But I think they are going to get caught in a run-of-the-mill ACC game this year, which they did not encounter last year. They lost the guts of their defense. They have a quarterback who has certainly been around and remains a question mark.”
.@finebaum believes FSU will finish unranked 👀
“I think they used up too many tears crying about not getting in the playoffs. That may slow them down a little bit.” pic.twitter.com/MeOComebfk
— First Take (@FirstTake) August 13, 2024
Finebaum then proceeded to say that he believes Florida State will struggle to get over the highs and lows of the 2023-24 season.
“I also think they (will) have a hangover,” Finebaum added. “I think they used up too many tears crying about not getting in the playoffs. That may slow them down a little bit this year.”
Luckily, Florida State likely won’t need to worry about missing out on the CFP again this year if they look as good as they did last season with the new 12-team format in place. But clearly, Finebaum expects some pretty significant regression.
