I still think Saban benched Milroe not because he was panicking but because he wanted to shut up all the idiots calling for Milroe's head. Like, you think Milroe sucks? Ok, fine. Here's the other guy against lowly USF and you can see how shit we are.
My only gripe with FSU not making it in is that they got punished for shit that was out of their control. They scheduled two P5 OOC opponents. Both from the SEC. Beat them both. Normally Clemson would have been a big win. So, in a normal year, their SOS would have been fine. Of course, they probably would have dropped a game in that case, but that's hypotheticals. They can't help that their QB got hurt near the end of the season. They went out and won anyway.
Meanwhile, you've got teams like Georgia who scheduled powerhouses like UT Martin, Ball St., and UAB. Other than us, Alabama scheduled the mighty Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee St., South Florida, and the world beaters down at Chattanooga. And then they strugglebeared with beating teams like Auburn and Arkansas.
You're splitting hairs when trying to say Team X's resume is better than Team Y's or this team is better now than this other team. FSU won on the field.