Greg Sankey believed one of the teams in his conference should have been in the College Football Playoff. The SEC commissioner said as much while on an appearance on 1010XL in Jacksonville, Fla.

Sankey said the Georgia Bulldogs should’ve been in the College Football Playoff last season. Georgia went 12-1 prior to finishing No. 6 in the final College Football Playoff rankings. The lone loss came against Alabama in the SEC championship game, which dropped Georgia from No. 1 to No. 6 in the final rankings.

But Sankey didn’t just stop at saying Georgia should’ve been in the playoff last year. He fired a not so subtle shot at the Florida State Seminoles in the process.

“Georgia was one of the best four teams (in the nation) and didn’t get in (the Playoff). But you didn’t see us jumping up and down and complaining and hanging national championship banners,” Sankey said.

Florida State finished No. 5 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, behind Alabama at no. 4.

The Seminoles saw a rash of transfers and opt-outs following the decision by the College Football Playoff committee. Florida State still played against Georgia in the Orange Bowl but the result did not help Florida State’s case.

Georgia crushed Florida State 63-3, making it the most lopsided bowl game ever. And Georgia was without a few contributors of its own, as first-round picks Brock Bowers and Amarius Mims both missed the game.

While Florida State may not have seen much value in the bowl game, Georgia coach Kirby Smart certainly did.

“We got to practice 15 more times I think it was. Got to play some guys,” Smart said at the SEC spring meetings in May. “We got to play our backup quarterback. We got the chance to finish off on a win. We had a group of seniors, or juniors in some cases that got drafted that walked off that field for the last time with the winngest record in the history of Georgia football and they felt pretty good about themselves.”

Georgia and Florida State do have a home-and-home scheduled in 2027 and 2028. Of course, with a 12-team College Football Playoff, there’s the chance the two match up much sooner. Both schools would have made the College Football Playoff a season ago had been a 12-team field.

Georgia will open the 2024 season against a different ACC foe, as the Bulldogs open against Clemson on Aug. 31.