Eli Drinkwitz has led Missouri to its first New Year’s 6 bowl in program history, but the Tigers head coach has gone to bat for Florida State following its exclusion from the College Football Playoff.

On Sirius XM on Thursday, Drinkwitz made it clear that Jordan Travis’s injury should have had no bearing on the Seminoles being left out of the Playoff with a 13-0 record and ACC championship win.

“Let me ask you this. If a team in the Playoff has a star player get injured, are they going to be removed from the Playoff and then we put Florida State back in?” Drinkwitz asked rhetorically. “That, to me, was complete nonsensical rationalization.”

While conceding that he was an “SEC guy”, Drinkwitz still felt as if the Noles were dealt with unfairly, especially keeping in mind the Michigan sign-stealing investigation and the Wolverines ending up in the field.

“That one bothered me a whole lot, and then to not factor in maybe a team having an unfair advantage in some of their games, it just seemed like to me we were picking and choosing what lens we were going to look through,” he said.