can you imagine if the committee said FSU got left out because of the chop
That would have made a lot more sense, actually. Something objective and tangible that FSU could have done differently.
There was a pretty good quote from Bowden about how the FSU administration chose the ACC over the SEC to avoid having to "wade through that SEC" every year that came up recently. It's going back to well before anything they did this season, but that stands out as something FSU could have done differently to better be in a situation for a 4-team playoff (crystal ball would have been necessary in the early 90s but still, that was a choice they made).
I don't really have strong feelings one way or another about FSU, but the conscious decision to take the low road regarding conference affiliation coming back to bite them in the last possible year of the 4-team playoff (and possibly accelerating the unraveling of the ACC as a consequence of this year's field excluding an unbeaten FSU) gives me a giggle.