Bama deserves to be in the playoff. Let me tell you a few reason why.
1. Alabama has better wins. They have a win over the #1, #11, and #13 teams. Florida St, meanwhile, has wins over #13 and #15. Btw, the win on #15 was because of a Louisville team that was highly overrated (need we remind you of the loss to lowly Pitt?), and they struggled to win that game.
2. While it is true that Florida St has won a conference title, Alabama has also won one, and the SEC is much more prestigious than the ACC.
3. Strength of schedule is a very important factor in deciding the penultimate rankings. Alabama had the 5th toughest schedule in the country, according to ESPN Metrics, while Florida St had the 55th toughest schedule that they also struggled with to a point. It is therefore easy to argue that, had Florida St had Alabama’s difficult schedule, they would have had a record more like 11-2.
4. While many people argue that Alabamas loss to Texas deserved to exclude them from the playoffs, that loss came to a team that is very highly ranked, and that loss was extremely early in the season (Week 2) and they were using a QB that had never really played a college game in his life, much less on that stage.
5. If you didn’t watch the Florida St - North Alabama game (like most people), you might not know that Florida St QB Jordan Travis suffered a broken leg. The next game, backup Tate Rodermaker suffered a head injury. They clearly hit a very low offensive ceiling, as they only scored 24 points against a sub-500 team in Florida. It is inconceivable that Florida St could have beaten a heavyweight Michigan team, especially not with a QB who went 8 for 21 for 55 yards. The entire point of the CFB is to give us the best matches between the best teams. It is impossible to imagine Florida St as a better team then a huge Alabama team with a strong defense (held the best offense in the country [LSU] to 28 points) and has a extremely potent offense that would cook Florida State’s defense alive