Maybe so, but the Irish don't care. They know they beat FSU (at home, by a thread), and that FSU went and played for the MNC as a one-loss team, but they didn't--also a one-loss team. Of course, FSU's loss was to the Irish, whereas the Irish lost a week later--at home--to a team ranked in the teens (BC).
In the system as it was conceived at the time, FSU and Nebraska were the right choices for the Orange Bowl, but that don't matter to the Irish. They refer to it as Seminolegate. SFIrish was studying abroad that year, so that tempers some of the pain for her, but they are all still sore over it.
Fun fact: first on-campus College Gameday was the FSU/ND game.