The ACC Football schedule was finalized yesterday, and Florida State certainly was not given any favors by the conference. Whether or not this has anything to do with their desire to leave the conference and make it look bad following a 63-3 loss in the bowl game to Georgia is up to interpretation. The conference obviously would never come out and say anything, but when looking deeper at the conference, it makes one wonder.
Florida State Faces a Gauntlet in the Middle of the Season
Following a somewhat simple start to the season playing Georgia Tech, Boston College, Memphis, and California either at home or at a neutral site, the Seminoles play a six-game stretch of games that may all be against future bowl-eligible teams. In this five-game stretch, there is one bye week beween Clemson and Duke, and four of the games are on the road. Below are their games along with their 2023 record as a reference.
- 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.
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