Florida State Legend Charlie Ward Weighs In On Snub Of Seminoles, What Needs To Change

Everyone around the country has an opinion to voice about the College Football Playoff after Florida State was unjustly snubbed. Despite winning their conference and defeating three teams in the final CFP top-25 rankings, the Seminoles found themselves leapfrogged by Texas and Alabama with both jumping four spots after not moving at all for the previous five weeks.

It's a situation that's hard to put into words because it's never happened before and probably will never happen again with the playoff moving to 12 teams next season. 

Florida State legend Charlie Ward called the situation "heartbreaking" during a recent interview with TMZ. He says it's even more frustrating when there's nothing you can do except sit back and listen to the discourse.

"It was definitely heartbreaking as an alum but more importantly for the coaches and the players at FSU because a lot of the guys that were seniors came back just for this opportunity," Ward said. "When you go out and do what you were supposed to do on the field, everything that you've been asked to do, which is win games, and you don't get a chance to play for a national championship, it's definitely gut-wrenching."

"It's that whole scenario, sometimes when you've done all the right things and someone accuses you of doing something that you didn't do. They make it the gospel and they make it law and there's nothing that you can do about it," Ward continued. "That is the most frustrating part about this situation because they've done everything that they've been asked to do, which is win games, and then they get compared to teams that have done all that they can do except a game. They've [the other teams] lost a game."

The move calls into question the legitimacy of the committee and makes one wonder why the group was even instituted in the first place. After all, the Seminoles were ranked No. 4 in the AP Top 25 Poll, No. 4 in the BCS Poll, and No. 3 in the Coaches Poll - but No. 5 by a group of people in a conference room with plenty of human biases.

Ward is calling for the process to become more transparent with its selection process and way of operating to mitigate these potential problems in the future.

"And so when they start getting compared to teams that have lost one game and they haven't lost a game, that is very, very frustrating and it's just cause for concern on how do we come to this conclusion for choosing the teams," Ward said. "I would like to see us have access to the selection committee process. I've been on the board of FHSAA here in Florida and a lot of our meetings are online to where people can weigh in and see what the conversations are. I would like to see us open up that process so we can hear these conversations and weigh in on the process."

Ward won the first Heisman Trophy in Tallahassee while leading the program to its first National Championship in 2023. During that season, he completed 264/380 passes for 3,032 yards with 27 touchdowns to four interceptions while rushing for 339 yards and four more scores.

After the conclusion of his collegiate career, Ward was drafted in the first round of the 1994 NBA Draft by the New York Knicks. He played in the league for 12 seasons, averaging 6.3 points, 4.0 assists, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals in 22.3 minutes per game over 630 games, with 285 starts.