The decision was between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida State Seminoles. Faced with the toughest choices in its history, the College Football Playoff selection committee went with UA due to its overall growth, and ultimately, a healthy quarterback.

The debate crackled on the ESPN set, Twitter, group chats and message boards nationally. Personal biases arose, and conspiracies were concocted to explain FSU’s exclusion. But, unsurprisingly, Nick Saban agreed with committee chair Boo Corrigan and co.

“Texas is a great team and I think they’re deserving of their opportunity in terms of their resume of getting in the game. So this is just one of those years where, and there’s been other years like this, you know, somebody that may have been deserving got left out. And Florida State certainly going undefeated was, did everything they could to get in the Playoff and unfortunately, probably cause of the injury to their quarterback were not gonna have that opportunity,” said Saban.

Jordan Travis said he was “heartbroken” and joked he should’ve broken his leg earlier to let Florida State’s other quarterbacks prove themselves amid a 13-0 year and Atlantic Coast Conference championship. Travis was on the sideline along with his concussed backup Tate Rodemaker watching Brock Glenn lead the Seminoles over Louisville.

FSU athletic director Michael Alford wrote in a fiery open letter that the committee “failed the sport” by not evaluating the on-field product and instead predicting the future.

According to the CFP Selection Protocol, “adopted unanimously” on June 20, 2012, the criteria include an emphasis on conference titles, strength of schedule, and “other relevant factors” which include if key players or coaches are unavailable for the postseason. Alabama and Florida State both won their leagues, though UA has the edge in the other two categories. The sticking point will be a Week 2, 10-point home loss to No. 3 Texas.

As for Saban’s other point about teams being left out in the past, he may be referencing the 2022 Tide, which lost two games but as Saban repeated “would’ve been favored over” three of the four admitted teams: Ohio State, TCU and Michigan. Corrigan, appointed the committee head this January, used a similar argument when explaining the rationale on ESPN.

“The questions we do ask from a coaching standpoint is who do you want to play and who do you not want to play,” he said.

Alabama will meet No. 1 Michigan, the 13-0 Big 10 champs, in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.

Nick Alvarez is a reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @nick_a_alvarez or email him at [email protected].