If you want to look at the power of ESPN's propaganda, look no further than people in this thread. MULTIPLE posters are parroting what ESPN said "FSU looked horrible with their third string QB". Do you know who wouldn't be playing in the playoffs? The 3rd string QB. Rodemaker would be starting, not Glenn. While Rodemaker isn't Travis, he has road wins over Louisville in 2022 and florida in 2023.
There were posters in this thread that disregard Bama's need for a miracle vs Auburn because it was a rivalry game. Rodemaker beat a florida team, that by every metric, is better than Auburn, and didn't need a miracle to do so. Guess which team got propped up by ESPN for their gutsy miracle win and which team was penalized for an "ugly" 9 point win? Hell, there was a full story on ESPN trying to validate the win as preparation and not luck, just to spin the narrative.
ESPN started laying the foundation for this, prior to Travis's injury. When Alabama locked up their spot in the SECCG, ESPN turned up the narrative on how good Texas was, because they needed a reason to mask Bama's loss if they were to beat Georgia. It's why they beat the drum so loud for their "big" win over Texas Tech and why they talked about how amazing the win over a floundering OSU was (that same OSU team that needed a complete meltdown by a 5 win BYU team just to get in and the same OSU team that got beat by UCF and South Alabama by a combined score of 88-10).
If Georgia wins, FSU doesn't get left out, because ESPN had a representative. Because they didn't, they needed an excuse to put Bama in and the injury was their only valid "reason" to do so.