Photo: Getty Images
The College Football Playoff matchups were announced on Sunday (December 3).
No. 4 Alabama will face No. 1 Michigan in the Sugar Bowl at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on January 1, 2024, in the first of two College Football Playoff Semifinal games. No. 3 Texas will face No. 2 Washington in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on January 1, 2024, in the other College Football Playoff Semifinal matchup.
No. 5 Florida State and No. 6 Georgia were the first two teams out of the final 4 on Sunday.
Alabama defeated then-No. 1 Georgia, the two-time defending national champions, 27-24, in the SEC Championship Game on Saturday (December 2), to move up four spots from last week's ranking and secure the final playoff seed. Georgia's loss was the first in 29 games and 728 days, with the last coming against Alabama in the 2021 SEC Championship Game during its first of two national championship seasons.
Florida State finished the season with an undefeated record after defeating Louisville, 16-6, in the ACC Championship Game, but was the first unbeaten Power 5 champion to miss out on the College Football Playoff since its inception in 2014. College Football Playoff Selection Committee Chair Boo Corrigan admitted that the loss of quarterback Jordan Travis, who suffered a season-ending leg injury last month, was "a big factor" in the Seminoles exclusion.
"It's unfathomable that Florida State, an undefeated Power Five conference champion, was left out of the College Football Playoff," said ACC commissioner Jim Phillips in a statement obtained by ESPN on Sunday. "Their exclusion calls into question the selection process and whether the Committee's own guidelines were followed, including the significant importance of being an undefeated Power Five conference champion. My heart breaks for the talented FSU student-athletes and coaches and their passionate and loyal fans. Florida State deserved better. College football deserved better."