Sports are rife with cringe-worthy banners hung to commemorate achievements that, if we’re being honest, don’t rise to the level of recognition. The standard-bearer in this category is maybe the Colts’ 2014 AFC “Finalist” banner, hung to honor the team that advanced to the AFC championship game and was handed a 45–7 loss to the Patriots. Another comes from the Predators of the NHL, who hung a banner for having the best regular-season record in the Western Conference during the 2017–18 season and labeled it as “Regular Season Western Conference Champions,” which is very much not a thing.
Florida State’s latest banner does not quite rise to this level, though it’s worth mentioning in the same conversation. Twitter had plenty of fun at the Seminoles’ expense during the broadcast of Tuesday’s game against Duke at the men’s team’s hanging of a banner to honor its No. 4 final ranking in 2020—you know, the season that saw the NCAA tournament get canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
March Madness is indisputably one of the best sporting events on the calendar, and we’d all like to forget the one year where it was abruptly canceled due to a global pandemic whose effects are still being felt today.
The Seminoles were the ACC’s regular season champions in 2020, and subsequently posed with the ACC tournament trophy after the event was canceled before the final could be held, so perhaps the banner is merely in lockstep with the program’s strategy on how to handle what was undeniably a standout season. It still creates an odd visual, and one that the internet likely isn’t done having fun with quite yet.
