Emmanuel Acho claims Florida State ‘deserves’ to be in the playoffs despite Alabama being a better team

Acho thinks FSU will playoffs but Alabama are the better team overall.

Emmanuel Acho claims Florida State ‘deserves’ to be in the playoffs despite Alabama being a better team

(M) Emmanuel Acho, (L) Nick Saban and (R) Mike Norvell (Image via IMAGO)

It was peak football when the Alabama Crimson Tide beat the #1 Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday night. The committee will release its final decision on which teams will be playing in the playoffs on Sunday at noon. But before that, former NFL player and now FOX analyst Emmanuel Acho shared his prediction.

These are the final few hours of stressful moments for the entire nation to hold their breath and wait to see which team will advance and which season will end in disappointment. Two teams are more or less through to the later stages that boast unbeaten records. They are the Michigan Wolverines (13-0) and the Washington Huskies (13-0).

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However, three more teams are in the mix to fill the final two spots. And needless to say, it has gone down to the wire. With Georgia’s loss, their 29-game winning streak came to an end, as did their perfect season record. They would have had a safe passage through, but another side, the Texas Longhorns, won their game against the Oklahoma State Cowboys and now boast the same winning record as the Bulldogs (12-1).

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That’s four down, one to go, and the last team that has made the selection situation tricky is the Florida State Seminoles. FSU faced the Louisville Cardinals late Saturday night. It wouldn’t even be a conversation if the Seminoles had lost the game, but they won comfortably, even without their #1 quarterback, Jordan Travis, who was the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy before getting injured.

Acho threw in his prediction to the hat. The interesting part of the Speak’s host is that his opinion is divided on which team should be in the playoffs. It proves that the college football committee has its work cut out. Acho wrote that Florida is playoff-bound, but Alabama is the better team overall. The funny thing is, he doesn’t even count the back-to-back college ball champion, Georgia, as one of the candidates at all.

Alabama Crimson Tide or Florida State Seminoles? Which team deserves a shot at the playoffs?

Florida State joined Michigan and Washington as the three teams in college football this season with a spotless record. By that merit alone, FSU should be the ones who deserve to continue their season.

Alabama Crimson Tide
Alabama Crimson Tide (Via Open Source/X)

But (and that’s a massive but), it’s only a hypothesis that the CF committee will look at two pivotal criteria before taking any major decision. First are the opponents (in Madden’s terms, ‘the difficulty level’) the two sides faced during 13 games. In that area, Bama clearly faced more established powerhouses (Texas A&M, LSU, Auburn, and Georgia).

The next one is the head-to-head record. Earlier in the season, the Longhorns beat the Tide 24-34 in Week 2. So in that aspect, the Texas team undefeatingly gets the nod over Nick Saban‘s side, even if he believes they are the ones who should go through.

He is not wrong considering the pedigree and the history (he won eight championships in the last 12 seasons). What’s intriguing is that if they don’t qualify for the playoffs, then it will be the first time CFP won’t have SEC representation, and that too in the year the conference is getting dissolved.

Saban has the vote of college football expert Brandon Walker. He believes that without Jordan Travis on the Florida side, that team lost; it’s one talismanic figure that attracted everyone to watch them play. Travis was on course for the Heisman before his season-ending injury.

NBC Sports Matthew Berry has the same opinion as Walker. He claimed that Michigan and Washington would rather face a Travis-less FSU over Alabama any day.

NFL Draft analyst for Pro Football Focus Trevor Sikkema chose both SEC teams, Alabama and Georgia.

Former NFL football player Darius Butler Sikkema had the same lineup. He too included both Bama and Bulldogs.

The Miami Dolphins writer for the Palm Beach Post, Joe Schad, however, went with the Texas Longhorns and Alabama Crimson Tide, ignoring Florida State.

It’s clear that even experts who have been following college football for a long time can’t come to a conclusion. Now all eyes are on the committee.

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