The 2023 Orange Bowl was a

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

played on December 30, 2023, at

Hard Rock Stadium Hard Rock Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in the Southeastern United States, located in Miami Gardens, Florida. The stadium is the home field for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League (NFL) and the Miami Hurricanes, the Univers ...

Miami Gardens, Florida Miami Gardens is a city in north-central Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of Miami and located north of Greater Downtown Miami, downtown Miami with city boundaries that stretch from Interstate 95 in Florida, I-95 and N ...

. The 90th annual

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

featured the

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

from the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(ACC) and the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The offic ...

from the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC)—teams selected at-large by the

College Football Playoff The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...

selection committee. The game began at 4:00 p.m. EST and aired on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. 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 Capital One Financial Corporation is an American bank holding company founded on July 21, 1994, and specializing in credit cards, auto loans, banking, and savings accounts, headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, with operations primarily in the ...

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

(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 In sports (especially in North America), a three-peat is winning three consecutive championships or tournaments. The term, a portmanteau of the words ''three'' and ''repeat'', originated with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Ass ...

since

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

from 1934 to 1936. They earned strong wins over

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

Ole Miss OLE, Ole or Olé may refer to: * Olé, a cheering expression used in Spain * Ole (name), a male given name, includes a list of people named Ole * Overhead lines equipment, used to transmit electrical energy to trams, trolleybuses or trains Co ...

, and

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

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 The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. For its first 32 seasons, the championship game pitted the Eastern Division regular season champion again ...

. However, the Bulldogs lost to

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, 24–27, which caused them to finish with a record of 12–1. Subsequently, the Bulldogs were not selected for the

. 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 Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

to start the season, the Seminoles went on to win all of their regular season games. However, during their game against

North Alabama North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...

, starting quarterback

Jordan Travis Jordan Travis (born May 2, 2000) is an American former professional football quarterback. He played college football for the Louisville Cardinals and the Florida State Seminoles, winning ACC Player of the Year in 2023 before being selected by th ...

suffered a season-ending injury. Since he was in his senior year, it also marked the end of his college career. After being drafted by the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

in the

2024 NFL draft The 2024 NFL draft was the 89th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players. The draft was held at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza in Detroit on April 25–27, 2024. The draft had an attendanc ...

, he spent his first season in rehabbing the injury, which ultimately failed, forcing his retirement during the 2025 NFL offseason. 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 2019, and from 2021 to 2022, the gam ...

with a 12–0 record and ranked at No. 4 in the CFP rankings. The team defeated

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

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 conferences are the most prominent athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I, the highest level o ...

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. The committee factors player availability into its selections. 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

Georgia Bulldogs football bowl games Florida State Seminoles football bowl games Sports competitions in Miami Gardens, Florida

Teams

Georgia

Florida State

Game summary

Statistics

Notes

References

Further reading

External links