Yesterday saw the finalization of the ACC Football schedule, and Florida State was undoubtedly not treated well by the league. It’s up for debate whether or not this had anything to do with their intention to withdraw from the conference and damage its reputation after losing to Georgia 63-3 in the bowl game. Naturally, the conference would never publicly comment, but a closer examination of the conference raises some questions.
Florida State Faces a Gauntlet in the Middle of the Season
The Seminoles had a very straightforward start to the season, hosting Georgia Tech, Boston College, Memphis, and California at home or on neutral ground. After that, they have a six-game stretch of games, some of which may be against teams that may eventually be eligible for bowl games. Between Clemson and Duke, there is one bye week during this five-game stretch, and four of the matches are away from home. As a point of reference, the games they have played in 2023 are shown here.
- AT SMU (11-3 in 2023)
- VS Clemson (9-4 in 2023)
- AT Duke (8-5 in 2023)
- AT Miami (7-6 in 2023)
- VS North Carolina (8-5 in 2023)
- AT Notre Dame (10-3 in 2023)
In total, the Seminoles will play six consecutive games in a row against teams that went 53-24 last season, and four of those games are on the road. There is a very real chance that Florida State will come into this gauntlet 4-0 and finish the six-week stretch with a 7-3 record and either barely ranked or unranked at all.
Schedule Was Made Months Ago, Order Was Recent
The opponents and nonconference schedule was made back on October 30th, before Florida State started to be very vocal against the ACC Conference. When that happened, Florida State knew who they were going to play and where, however the exact dates were still up in the air.
Again, there is no factual evidence that the ACC purposefully did their best to make the Seminoles’ schedule as difficult as possible, but when looking at it, it’s pretty hard to draw up a more difficult schedule considernig that the four nonconference games were already set. It really makes one wonder if the conference is sending a message.
Conclusion
Florida State certainly won’t have an issue getting into the 12-team College Football Playoff next year if they go undefeated. In fact, the way their schedule is set up, they may be able to lose two games and still make it. But with this schedule, and the amount of tough games on the road, the Seminoles are going to have to play really well to finish with a 10-2 record or better.
Florida State opens their season in Week 0 next year facing off against ACC foe Georgia Tech. The Seminoles will also finsih with a nonconference opponent when they host the Florida Gators.
