Fisher against running up scores

Florida Statecoach Jimbo Fisher stopped short of admonishing the College Football Playoff selection committee for dropping the undefeated Seminoles, but he did defend the reigning national champions' rsum.

In the third installment of the College Football Playoff rankings, 9-0 Florida State fell to No. 3 after being jumped by 9-1 Oregon, which sits at No. 2 behind undefeated Mississippi State.

"Nothing," Fisher said when asked of his reaction to Tuesday's rankings. "I kept watching film of Miami.

"That's their opinion. We got to get ready to play Miami. Things will always take care of themselves. I don't mean that in any disregard. Whether we'd have been No. 1, it'd have been the same."

Although there is no clear outline for the committee to follow with its rankings decisions, the focal point of the discussion surrounding the Seminoles is their lack of impressive wins coupled with close calls at home against Clemson and Notre Dame.

While Oregon suffered a home loss to Arizona, the committee looked at the Ducks' body of work, their recent run of impressive play and the fact that their offensive line was battling injuries in the loss.

The Pac-12 is considered a stronger conference than the ACC and has four teams ranked among the top 14 teams. If Oregon and Arizona Stateboth win out, the Ducks would host the No. 6 Sun Devils in the conference title game.

Asked whether the committee was sending a message that the Seminoles couldn't withstand a loss while teams in other power conferences are given passes, Fisher was reticent.

"You said that. I'm not getting into all that," he said. "I thought the name of the game was to keep winning.

"I don't know what [the committee is] trying to send or what's going on. I don't try to think what other people think."

Fisher also defended the Seminoles' nonconference schedule, which includes Florida, Notre Dame and Oklahoma State, as well as Florida State's wins, which many have called unimpressive. Six of the Seminoles' victories have been by 11 or more points, which Fisher called "significant margins."

The coach said he would not consider running up the score to please the committee or in an effort to make the Seminoles' results more convincing.

"I'm not going to change the integrity of the way I do things," he said. "I'm hoping to hold the integrity of the game higher than everybody else. If people on the committee can't see that, then that's it. We'll play the game the way it's supposed to be played."