Nick Saban reacts to Florida State playoff snub

The Alabama Crimson Tide were the beneficiaries of the College Football Playoff selection committee’s controversial call to exclude Florida State from the field of four on Sunday, and that was not lost on Nick Saban.

Saban admitted that the Seminoles were deserving of a place in the playoff, and seemed to genuinely feel bad for Florida State over their exclusion. He added, however, that the injury to quarterback Jordan Travis was likely the deciding factor.

“This is just one of those years where — and there have been other years like this — where somebody that may have been deserving got left out,” Saban said, via Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports. “Florida State, certainly, going undefeated did everything they could to get into the playoffs. Unfortunately, probably because of the injury to their quarterback, are not going to have that opportunity.”

Saban obviously is not going to complain too much about Florida State being left out. Their inclusion likely would have come at Alabama’s expense. Saban lobbied hard for his team to get in the playoff, so he can’t feel too sorry for the Seminoles.

All the same, it is telling that even Saban seems to feel a bit sorry for the Seminoles. It very easily could have been him angrily condemning the committee on Sunday instead.