College Football: 5 reasons Florida State wins 2017 National Championship
By John Buhler
The Florida State Seminoles are a team always in the College Football Playoff mix. Here are five reasons it will be the Seminoles winning it all in 2017.
When a blue-blood college football program like the Florida State Seminoles is humming, the whole sport is better. Florida State has re-emerged as a national power under head coach Jimbo Fisher. He has already won a national title at Florida State in 2013 and led the Seminoles to the inaugural College Football Playoff in the 2014 season.
Basically, Florida State should have one of the best teams in college football yet again in 2017. This is a team that will live in the top-10 in perpetuity with the current structure in place. It’s one of those programs that will contend for a national title annually. No, the Seminoles aren’t going to win it all every year, but they have to be in the conversation entering Week 1 just about every fall.
There is a lot to like about the 2017 Seminoles. Here are five reasons it will be Florida State that will win the ACC, reach its second College Football Playoff in four years and win its second national championship of the Fisher era down in Tallahassee.
5. Best team in the best all-around football conference for 2017
Though the Big Ten has the best coaches, the Pac-12 has the best quarterbacks and the SEC has the best on-field talent, the best conference in the Power 5 this year should be the ACC. While the Big Ten has some behemoths at the top and nobody will deny how great they are, the ACC looks great from No. 1 to No. 11.
Florida State is developing quite the rivalries in the ACC Atlantic with the Clemson Tigers and the Louisville Cardinals. Clemson is coming off a national title, but should not be projected to repeat; the Tigers simply lost too much talent. Lamar Jackson and Bobby Petrino are an elite quarterback/head coach combo at Louisville, but the Cardinals aren’t as deep as their two biggest ACC rivals.
Visit the FanSided college football page for more news, opinion and analysis
Let’s not overlook a potential ACC Atlantic sleeper in the North Carolina State Wolfpack or that quarterback Eric Dungey with the Syracuse Orange. Even the Boston College Eagles and Wake Forest Demon Deacons aren’t gimme games any more. Then, there’s the cross-divsional rival of Mark Richt’s Miami Hurricanes. The U might be back this year, so watch out.
Add in two non-conferences with the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Florida Gators at the bookends of the season and Florida State will absolutely be battle tested heading into the playoff. The Seminoles would be getting a well-coached team out of the ACC Coastal in the conference championship, too. Playing a tough ACC schedule only makes this Seminoles team better in the long run.