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Inside the College Football Playoff committee's decision to leave out Florida State

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GRAPEVINE, Texas -- It was between 1:30 and 2 a.m. CT on Sunday after the conference championship games when the 13 members of the College Football Playoff selection committee finally left their meeting room. They had been sequestered for hours as they determined the top four teams in the country.

They knew what they could potentially wind up with -- and it didn't feel good.

As difficult as it was for them to remove their emotions from the process, the sinking feeling about excluding an undefeated Power 5 conference champion was tempered by the belief that they did what they were tasked to do -- vote for the four best teams.