The 2023 Orange Bowl was a

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

bowl game played on December 30, 2023, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. The 90th annual Orange Bowl featured the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

from the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) and the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

from the Southeastern Conference (SEC)—teams selected at-large by the College Football Playoff selection committee. The game began at 4:00 p.m. EST and aired on ESPN. The Orange Bowl was one of the 2023–24 bowl games concluding the 2023 FBS football season. The game was sponsored by bank holding company Capital One and was officially known as the Capital One Orange Bowl. The 60-point victory for Georgia set a new record for the largest margin of victory in any bowl game at the FBS level (or its historical predecessors), surpassing the prior record of 58 points, which had been set by Georgia the previous season in the 2023 CFP National Championship game.

Teams

The game featured the

from the

(ACC), and the

from the Southeastern Conference (SEC). This was the 12th all-time meeting between the Seminoles and the Bulldogs; entering the game, Georgia led the series, 6-4-1.

Georgia

Georgia entered the season as two-time defending national champions, looking to add a third championship to become the first FBS college program to three-peat since Minnesota from 1934 to 1936. They earned strong wins over Kentucky, Ole Miss, and Tennessee by margins of 51–13, 52–17 and 38–10, respectively. The Bulldogs were riding a 29-game winning streak, which started in the 2021 Orange Bowl, heading into the SEC Championship Game. However, the Bulldogs lost to Alabama, 24–27, which caused them to finish with a record of 12–1. Subsequently, the Bulldogs were not selected for the College Football Playoff. Georgia entered the Orange Bowl ranked sixth in each of the major polls.

Florida State

Florida State entered the season with high expectations after a 10–3 record last season, finishing No. 11 in the AP poll. After an assertive 45–24 win over LSU to start the season, the Seminoles went on to win all of their regular season games. However, during their game against North Alabama, starting quarterback Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury. Since he was in his senior year, it also marked the end of his college career. The Seminoles entered the

ACC Championship Game The ACC Championship Game is an annual American college football game held in early December by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) each year to determine its football champion. From its inception in 2005 to 2022, the game pit the champion of ...

with a 12–0 record and ranked at No. 4 in the CFP rankings. The team defeated Louisville by 16–6. However, the Seminoles were placed at No. 5 in the final playoff rankings, becoming the first undefeated champion from a

Power Five The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiate ...

conference to be omitted from the playoffs in the CFP era (since the 2014 season). The final CFP rankings, which saw Alabama move up four spots to displace Florida State from a CFP semifinal berth, caused significant controversy. The Selection Committee cited the loss of Travis as a main reason why Florida State was left out of the playoffs. Florida State entered the Orange Bowl ranked fourth in the AP poll and fifth in the CFP rankings.

Game summary

Statistics

Notes

References

External links

Game statistics
at statbroadcast.com {{Florida State Seminoles bowl game navbox Orange Bowl Orange Bowl Orange Bowl Orange Bowl Georgia Bulldogs football bowl games Florida State Seminoles football bowl games