Quinn Ewers shows Florida State no mercy with brutal College Football Playoff claim

Forever unconquered, right up until Jordan Travis got hurt... It took a perfect storm to keep the 13-0 Florida State Seminoles out of the final four-team College Football Playoff, but it sure as hell happened. Florida State eked out an ACC Championship over a just happy to be there Louisville Cardinals team. Then, the semi-unthinkable happened. Georgia lost to Alabama in Atlanta ... again.

That took the two-time reigning national champions out of the playoff picture entirely. It elevated the one-loss Alabama Crimson Tide to the No. 4 seed. With Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama all getting in, Florida State had to settle for getting its brains beat in by a battery-throwing mad Georgia team in the Orange Bowl. It was a bad look for the Selection Committee, even worse for Florida State.

In an interview with FOX News Digital, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers said the committee got it right.

"It’s definitely a tough choice to make, especially with how the SEC Championship Game went, and Florida State and Jordan Travis getting hurt — in their minds, they were just picking who was playing the best football right now."

While his Longhorns made it in last year in the four-team format, Ewers is all-in on playoff expansion.

"It leaves a little bit more room for error. I think it’s what college football has needed."

Florida State and Georgia would have gotten in as No. 5 and No. 6 seeds in the postseason last year.

"I think it’s gonna give a lot more teams opportunities to win a national championship, and I think it’s gonna be great for the fans to see their teams making college football runs. Even for a smaller program that hasn’t had the opportunities that hasn’t had some of the opportunities that some of the bigger programs have had, I think it’s gonna be awesome for those guys to get a shot at it for sure."

Ewers brought up a few great points in that the Selection Committee's margin for error has widened with the recent playoff expansion from four to 12 teams. He also said this is great for fans of teams who did not make the playoff in its previous iteration. Teams like Baylor, Penn State, UCF and Utah would have all benefited considerably had the 12-team format been implemented from the very start.

Let's unpack if Ewers is right in his assertion that the Seminoles deserved to be left out last winter.

Quinn Ewers adamant Florida State should have been left out of CFP

I may be slightly biased, but who cares? Ewers is absolutely correct that the four teams who got in ultimately did last holiday season. Michigan and Washington were locks after going undefeated and winning their Power Five leagues. Texas won the Big 12 with only one loss on the season to arch rival Oklahoma. They also had the head-to-head tiebreaker over Alabama from their September meeting.

Seeing Georgia fall five spots from No. 1 to No. 6 was hard to stomach, but very few in Dawg Nation really thought this team deserved to be included. The Dawgs needed to beat Alabama in their usual house of horrors vs. the Crimson Tide. They did not, so to the Orange Bowl Georgia went. Alabama getting in over Florida State remains highly controversial, but the Seminoles were not getting in.

This is because in the eyes of the Selection Committee, the entire dynamic of the team changed. Had the 'Noles slaughtered the Cardinals in Charlotte, we could have been singing a different tune. With Tate Rodemaker as the starter and Brock Glenn backing him up, the 'Noles would have come up dead vs. Michigan in the Rose Bowl. This is a team that had everyone opt-out and lost by 60 to Georgia.

I don't know if Alabama was really one of the four best teams in the country, but they had the best win, which was a three-point victory over Georgia in a neutral site. Georgia was probably one of the four best teams, but they did not earn the right to play in the national semifinals. Florida State was one of the most deserving, but the concept of most deserving never gave ESPN the TV product it wanted.

The bigger question is if Florida State will be one of the 11 or 12 best teams in the country this year.