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Notes and observations from the world of major college football as the 2023 bowl season kicks off with some appetizer games this weekend:
n The College Football Playoff format will expand from four teams to 12 for the first time in 2024.
For the Florida State Seminoles, that change will be one year late in coming.
Despite finishing its season with a perfect 13-0 record and winning its Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, the Seminoles were boxed out of this season's CFP in favor of Southeastern Conference champion Alabama.
The committee voted to leave the Seminoles out because of the absence due to injury of star quarterback Jordan Travis, even though Florida State had remained unbeaten by parlaying an excellent defensive effort into a 16-6 win over Louisville in the ACC title game.
Going by the letter of the law, the committee was wrong in spurning the Seminoles -- the only unbeaten and conference champion from a Power Five Conference that has ever been denied entry into the CFP since the playoff format began in 2014 -- a chance to play for the national title.
After all, this sent a message that regular-season games and even conference championship games are relatively meaningless in the scheme of things, playing second fiddle to the whims of the selection committee members instead.
The right thing to do would have been to admit Florida State. The Seminoles earned it.
However, in the spirit of the law, the college football fan in most places outside of Tallahassee isn't too disappointed in the decision.
Instead, a once-beaten Alabama team which knocked off previously unbeaten and defending two-time national champion Georgia in the SEC championship game will enter the CFP as its fourth-seeded team and meet up with top seed Michigan in the Rose Bowl in one of this year's two semifinal games.
Gut feeling -- who among diehard college football fans would not prefer to see this riveting matchup between two of the sport's most venerable bluebloods, the Crimson Tide and Wolverines, going head-to-head for the right to play in the national championship game on Jan. 8?
The matchup -- in which unbeaten Big Ten Conference champion Michigan enters as the most narrow of favorites at 1½ points -- is intriguing for a number of reasons. Give Alabama's maestro magician coach Nick Saban a month to prepare for any opponent, and all bets are off.
Penn State played in the last traditional Rose Bowl between Big Ten and PAC-12 conference champions last year, but this Alabama-Michigan showdown adds a layer of extra shine to what has been traditionally been college football's most esteemed bowl game.
Opinions in the college football world are divided, with television analyst Kirk Herbstreit and LSU coach Brian Kelly expressing their viewpoints that the best four teams should be in the playoffs, and Alabama's inclusion accomplishes this.
On the other hand, television analyst Anthony Darelle "Booger" McFarland and this year's Heisman Trophy winning LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels have equally strong convictions that Florida State should have been the playoff choice.
But Alabama does more than Florida State to pass the eye test at this point in time, and the committee thought so too. The next month will reveal whether that decision was a sound one.
n As good as the Alabama-Michigan showdown promises to be, the semifinal Sugar Bowl matchup between unbeaten Pac-12 Conference champion Washington and once-beaten Big 12 Conference champion Texas on New Year's Night in New Orleans holds almost equal suspense.
Led by outstanding quarterback Michael Penix, Jr., the second-seeded Huskies punched their ticket by beating a very talented Oregon team for the second time this season in the conference championship game.
Third-seeded Texas has been on a roll, and the Longhorns dealt Alabama its only loss this season back on September 9.
Load up on the hot dogs and sauerkraut, and get the recliner ready. This New Year's Day promises to be one to remember.
n There have been rumblings -- unsubstantiated thus far - that Florida State may boycott playing Georgia in the Dec. 30 Orange Bowl as a statement of dissatisfaction for the CFP snub.
If the game is played, however, the Seminoles will have the opportunity to make another kind of statement by beating Georgia and showing the selection committee that it was wrong.
A Georgia win, however, -- particularly a convincing one -- would provide credence to the legitimacy of the committee's decision.
n After the preseason firing of long-time head coach and alumnus Pat Fitzgerald in the wake of Northwestern's preseason hazing scandal, it would have been almost expected for this year's Wildcats to succumb to the distraction and watch their season tank, much like what happened at Michigan State after the preseason dismissal of their former head coach Mel Tucker.
However, deserved props go to David Braun -- who was promoted from an assistant coaching post to the head coaching position in the midst of the Northwestern crisis -- for doing a wonderful job of keeping the Wildcats' ship afloat.
Braun, who had been the team's interim head coach at the outset of the season, was named the permanent head coach at Northwestern in mid-November.
Northwestern finished the regular season with 7-5 record and will meet Utah in the December 23 Las Vegas Bowl.
N Among the most significant opt-outs for upcoming bowl games are Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman for the Dec. 29 Sun Bowl against Oregon State, North Carolina's Drake Maye for the Dec. 27 Duke Mayo Bowl against Oregon State, USC quarterback Caleb Williams for the Holiday Bowl against Louisville, and Penn State defensive end Chop Robinson for the Dec. 30 Peach Bowl against Mississippi. All four players have been huge difference-makers in their team's fortunes this season.
n I'm picking Alabama and Texas to win their semifinal games and meet in the championship game, where I think the Crimson Tide will avenge their regular-season loss to the Longhorns and win another national title.
(John Hartsock can be reached at jhartsock@altoonamirror.com)