No. 6 Georgia capped its 2023 season with the largest blowout win in bowl history, downing No. 5 Florida State 63-3 in the Orange Bowl. The Seminoles, who were left out of the 2023-24 CFP despite a 13-0 record and an ACC title, were down more than 20 players due to opt-outs, injuries and the transfer portal.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart was happy with his team's performance, but understood that it came against a team missing nearly a third of its scholarship roster. Fresh off a 60-point victory, Smart used his postgame press conference as a pulpit to call for change in college football.
"People need to see what happened tonight and they need to fix this," Smart said. "It needs to be fixed. It's very unfortunate that they, who have a good football team and a good football program, are in the position they're in. And everybody can say it's their own fault, it's their own problem. Everybody can say that we had our guys and they didn't have their guys. I can listen to all that. But college football has got to decide what they want.
"I know things are changing. Things are going to change next year. You know what, there's gonna still be bowl games outside of those. People got to decide what they want and what they really want to get out of it, cause it's really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline that had to play in that game and didn't have their full arsenal. It affected the game, 100%."
Florida State took its largest blow all year before the regular season ended when starting quarterback Jordan Travis exited a dominant win over North Alabama with a devastating leg injury. Despite that, the Noles went on the road and beat Florida by nine points and then walked out of the ACC Championship Game with a 10-point win against top-15 Louisville despite playing their third-string quarterback.
None of that was enough for the playoff selection committee, who cited Travis' injury as the main reason why it elected to place one-loss Alabama at No. 4 ahead of Florida State -- an unprecedented move in the almost 10 years of the current College Football Playoff format. Instead, the Seminoles drew Georgia in the Orange Bowl.
By the time Saturday's game kicked off, Florida State was without its top two quarterbacks, its top two running backs, its top two wide receivers, a starting tight end, three starting defensive linemen, two starting linebackers and three starting defensive backs. Georgia, meanwhile, was at relatively full strength and most of its most notable absences were due to injury.