An ESPN perspective about Florida State, Mike Norvell, Alabama Football, and Karma

After Memphis dropped Florida State to 0-3, ESPN's David Hale wrote a sympathy column for the Seminoles. I am a fan of Hale's work and his column is another well-written piece. His perspective on FSU is an interesting one. Nonetheless, his core theme rankles me.

Hale portrays FSU as not just an aggrieved party, but 'the' most aggrieved program in college football. On that point, perhaps Hale is correct. Hale fails by pairing FSU and Alabama Football into a college football dichotomy of pitiful FSU and Evil Empire Alabama.

Describing last season, when Alabama Football made the Playoffs and FSU did not, Hale wrote, "In a more just world, Florida State might've earned a little good karma after the indignity of its playoff snub. In a more fair world, Alabama might, just once, be dealt a bad hand."

Hale makes a good point about karma. It's just not the complete story. FSU forgot a valuable caution parents should teach their children. Getting too big for one's britches is a path to not just failure, but also ridicule. Maybe Mike Norvell and FSU AD, Michael Alford missed out on that guidance. So as it is said, pride comes before the fall.

And oh my, how far the Florida State football program has fallen. From what was misperceived as a position of strength, FSU took on the ACC. After long wrangling the only believed result is neither the SEC nor the Big Ten want the Seminoles. The result is college football's most aggrieved party owns only one distinction. It is the ultimate and forever CFB Playoff Pretender. Some think the situation is hilarious. For others, it brings only sadness. No sympathy will come from Alabama Crimson Tide fans.

David Hale is a talented wordsmith. Painting the Alabama Football program as college football's Devil always attracts many fans. But it is a theme, tired from overuse. The irony is many Alabama Crimson Tide fans relish the Alabama football program as the most hated in college football.

It is impossible to discard pitiful FSU stories, without realizing Alabama came scary close to hiring Mike Norvell. Greg Byrne has said that when he interviewed Kalen DeBoer in Seattle, he knew DeBoer was his guy. But he asked DeBoer to wait because he owed another coach another conversation. That coach was Mike Norvell. What followed allowed Norvell to say he had taken his name out of consideration for the Alabama job; a job Byrne never offered him. But, Byrne might have, had the DeBoer interview not been a slam dunk. Now Norvell has an $84M contract with FSU and a four-game losing streak. It will cost FSU $65M to buy him out.

Maybe Norvell will turn FSU around - or maybe Greg Byrne and Alabama Football dodged a bullet. I wonder how David Hale would describe that karma.