After a 14-0 season that resulted in the school’s first national championship in 14 years, fans are anxious to see what Florida State can do for an encore. With the kickoff to 2014 still more than a month away, much has been made about the Seminoles’ seemingly rigorous non-conference schedule.
Florida State will open the season against Oklahoma State in Dallas — a location roughly 600 miles closer to Stillwater than Tallahassee. After a match-up against FCS Citadel in its home-opener, Florida State will host a Notre Dame team in mid-October that is just one year removed from playing for a national championship itself. FSU will then close the regular season at home against rival Florida, who is expected to be much better than its 4-8 finish a season ago.
While Florida State is being credited for playing a difficult non-conference slate in 2014, facing big names from outside conferences is nothing new for the Seminoles.
For years and often with good reason, fans have been quick to malign the ACC and in Florida State’s case, downplay the significance of its many conference titles. It was a good year for the ACC in 2013 as both FSU and Clemson won BCS games while the conference had a number of players take home individual awards including the Heisman Trophy which went to Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston.
With stars however, like Tajh Boyd, Sammy Watkins, Andre Williams and Aaron Donald gone as well as ACC newcomer Louisville losing quarterback Teddy Bridgewater to the first round of the NFL Draft, some are predicting a tough season for the ACC as a whole. Though the ACC has had difficulty gaining credibility as a football conference, Florida State has long sought to compensate for a lackluster conference slate.
Excluding bowls since 2006, Florida State has faced nine ranked non-conference opponents including seven in the top 10. That number would have been eight had West Virginia not backed out of a scheduled early-season match-up in Tallahassee in 2012. Of the nine contests against ranked non-conference opponents, three were on the road and another was at a neutral location.
Though the ACC has been scoffed at on the gridiron, few schools have routinely sought to take on the nation’s best outside of conference play as the Seminoles have. In fact, long before Florida State was invited to join the Atlantic Coast Conference, it was the “Anybody, anytime, anywhere” mentality that put the Seminoles on the map in Bobby Bowden’s early days as head coach.
After winning four combined games in three years prior to taking over, Bowden earned the Seminoles national respect early in his career by going on the road, playing and beating teams like Nebraska, Ohio State, Notre Dame and LSU. That’s a tradition that Florida State continues to carry on.
Should Florida State make a similar run as it did a year ago and push for one of the four spots in the inaugural College Football Playoff, fans and experts may cite the ACC as a reason why the Seminoles may not belong. With a non-conference slate that includes three schools that have top 10 finishes over the last three years however, that may not be a winning argument. While Florida State’s non-conference schedule certainly looks to be difficult in 2014, playing the best teams outside of the ACC is nothing new for the Seminoles.
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